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Speaker 1: Those messages coming through on the text line this morning

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Speaker 1: zero four double nine seven double one three six zero.

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Speaker 1: Now we know the City of Darwin say they're confident

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Speaker 1: that the proposed one hundred and fifty million dollar redevelopment

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Speaker 1: providing Darwin with the new civic center and office tower

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Speaker 1: is in alignment with compliance with the local government to

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Speaker 1: act and other applicable legislation and requirements. Now, according to

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Speaker 1: report in the Northern Territory News, the council says that

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Speaker 1: contingencies and risks have been factored into that project plan,

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Speaker 1: alloying any concerns and questions that have been asked about

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Speaker 1: any cost overruns and their impact on rate payers. Now.

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Speaker 1: The comments come after opponents to the City of Darwin's

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Speaker 1: new civic center reportedly filed an application during last week

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Speaker 1: in the federal court requesting the disclosure of council documents

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Speaker 1: relating to this twenty one story one hundred and fifty

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Speaker 1: million dollar development. Now. That federal court application, according to

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Speaker 1: the was made by Darwin legal firm De Silver. Hebron

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Speaker 1: On behalf of a number of nominees now joining me

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Speaker 1: in the studio to talk more about this and other

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Speaker 1: council matters is the CEO of the City of Darwin,

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Speaker 1: Simone Saunders. Good morning to you, Good morning Katie, Thanks

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Speaker 1: so much for your time this morning. Now, Simona, you

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Speaker 1: concerned their opponents to the City of Darwin's new Civic

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Speaker 1: Center have filed this application during last week to the

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Speaker 1: federal court requesting the disclosure of council documents.

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Speaker 2: Look, the City of Darwin has put this out already

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Speaker 2: hast part of the media and the statements that we've

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Speaker 2: we're confident that we've followed all the requirements to meet

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Speaker 2: our legislative and statutory requirements in relation to the civic center.

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Speaker 2: It has been over a four year process to get

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Speaker 2: us to this stage where where you know, building is

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Speaker 2: imminent of the new Civic Center. And yeah, we're confident

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Speaker 2: that everything's been done. Under the Local Government Act, there's

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Speaker 2: certain documents that you keep within confidentiality and the claw

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Speaker 2: applicable clause, and we've done that in accordance with that.

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Speaker 2: And what happens over time is more information or council

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Speaker 2: make additional decisions or we have the upcoming municipal plan,

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Speaker 2: and when decisions are made, they're then released into the

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Speaker 2: public domain. At that time when those council decisions are

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Speaker 2: made and ratified.

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Speaker 1: So it doesn't sound as though all documents are going

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Speaker 1: to be disclosed.

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Speaker 2: No, it depends where they are within the process and

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Speaker 2: what happens. Twice a year, council reviews or confidential decisions

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Speaker 2: and decisions that are holding confidence and then they release

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Speaker 2: them as they need to once certain conditions. Conditions are met.

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Speaker 2: A lot of the time documents are kept confidential so

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Speaker 2: that they don't prejudice a procurement process. If you're talking

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Speaker 2: you're going to spend X amount of dollars, and then

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Speaker 2: you do a procurement process, you can end up in

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Speaker 2: circumstance where the community will pay more for those for

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Speaker 2: those actual services. So we're confident in that and we'll

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Speaker 2: just let the court process run through and the lawyers

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Speaker 2: will will liaise on City of Darwin's behalf.

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Speaker 1: Someone I know that a member of the group had

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Speaker 1: said that they're concerned that this project is going to

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Speaker 1: cost more than that one hundred and fifty million dollars.

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Speaker 1: What happens if there is an overrun.

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Speaker 2: So with the project, the City of Darwin portion is

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Speaker 2: the seventy seven million, So with DECO they will they

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Speaker 2: will decide and manage their part of that costs. It

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Speaker 2: will be a fixed price contract that we've entered.

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Speaker 1: Into, so it's fixed price.

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Speaker 2: It's a fixed price, and as with all projects that

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Speaker 2: we see in the territory, there may be unknown conditions,

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Speaker 2: but there's contingencies and the risks of that have been

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Speaker 2: managed really closely by the City of Darwin. I'll just

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Speaker 2: go to the casualin or quite a can leisure center

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Speaker 2: came in four months early and came in on budget.

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Speaker 2: So what City of Darwin does is that we change

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Speaker 2: scale and scope as we need to within these projects.

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Speaker 2: But we're confident that the seventy seven million allocated meets

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Speaker 2: you know, the quantity surveyor requirements to build what we're

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Speaker 2: looking to build for the community.

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Speaker 1: So if there's an overrun, if those costs go up

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Speaker 1: in some way, then you will modify the.

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Speaker 2: Project if we need to. But within the contract there's

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Speaker 2: contingencies already built into a building contract that there will exit.

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Speaker 2: Spectations are that there will be overruns and then City

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Speaker 2: of Darwin, a council through the municipal plan process, may

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Speaker 2: allocate additional funds to hold as contingencies. As part of

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Speaker 2: that process. And that will be in the public domain

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Speaker 2: when the draft municipal plan comes out.

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Speaker 1: So what are I mean, what are some of those

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Speaker 1: contingencies that might come into place if required.

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Speaker 2: So what we see in the territory mostly is when

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Speaker 2: we break ground, and this would have happened on State

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Speaker 2: Square as well, that when we go we don't know

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Speaker 2: necessarily what the conditions underground, if you've got any any

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Speaker 2: what they the latent conditions that might be there. So

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Speaker 2: that's that's one element. The other thing, though, that may

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Speaker 2: be part of it, is we're getting certain materials that

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Speaker 2: we're you know, have escalated in price over that time,

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Speaker 2: but they're all things that can be managed by the

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Speaker 2: City of Darwin through the process.

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Speaker 1: I mean, have you anticipated or estimated how much it's

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Speaker 1: going to cost to run each year?

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Speaker 2: The final pricing of that hasn't been done because again

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Speaker 2: what componentries you end up putting in the building depends

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Speaker 2: on what the final run costs. But what council is

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Speaker 2: really keen to do, and one of the decisions of

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Speaker 2: council is where possible where we can afford climate or

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Speaker 2: environment efficiencies within the building. So that might be sensors

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Speaker 2: when you walk into a room to activate air conditioners

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Speaker 2: or fans and the like that they will be built

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Speaker 2: into the building. So the more that we can spend

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Speaker 2: potentially on some of those items factored into the building,

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Speaker 2: the less the cost then to run lighting and other

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Speaker 2: things in the building.

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Speaker 1: All right, now I want to ask moving along, is

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Speaker 1: there an update on Lake Alexander. Has it opened again?

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Speaker 2: It has opened again, So Lake Alexander is good, good

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Speaker 2: for swimming again? That opened last week? All right.

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Speaker 1: There's always a few people getting in contact with us

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Speaker 1: about Lake Alexander. Another one that I'm keen to get

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Speaker 1: a bit of an update from from one of our listeners.

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Speaker 1: Has there been an update on the fence at the

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Speaker 1: per Rap Childcare that you and I have spoken about

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Speaker 1: on a few occasions.

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Speaker 2: Yep, So the fence and the Pup childcare. The City

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Speaker 2: of Darwin team was already in me during the time

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Speaker 2: that we were talking, and they've met with the Body

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Speaker 2: corporate and the Body Corporate is now getting a full

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Speaker 2: scope of works which includes fencing and trenching in every

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Speaker 2: all the works that need to be done. And City

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Speaker 2: of Darwin's commitment is still fifty percent to that to

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Speaker 2: that fence as needed. But at the moment, we're just

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Speaker 2: waiting for that information back now.

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Speaker 1: One of the other issues that people do continue to

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Speaker 1: contact us about is the Smith Street works. I know

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Speaker 1: that for some of those businesses, they are you know,

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Speaker 1: really making call outs on social media to say, hey,

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Speaker 1: we're still opened because they've got massive fences up in

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Speaker 1: front of their businesses. I was down there on the

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Speaker 1: weekend and saw it like it really does look like

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Speaker 1: everything's closed. Unfortunately, yeah, look it is.

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Speaker 2: It is disruptive to the business is when we do

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Speaker 2: works works on the streets. So City of Darwin you know,

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Speaker 2: does apologize for any inconvenience that we do cause during

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Speaker 2: that time. You know, I guess being on the radio,

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Speaker 2: shout out to anybody that knows and goes to those

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Speaker 2: businesses to continue the custom during the period of time. Fortunately, though,

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Speaker 2: to do the works, we do need to make sure

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Speaker 2: that the safety fencing is in place. We're going to

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Speaker 2: be doing work to you know, it's greening and cooling,

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Speaker 2: so there is by claims going in. So we do

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Speaker 2: have to have that work over a period of time

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Speaker 2: where possible. Though we're working with a contractor to get

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Speaker 2: works done at night where possible, and we really want

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Speaker 2: to get it into the shortest window of time to

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Speaker 2: get the works done.

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Speaker 1: How long is it going to take to finish.

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Speaker 2: So that the scheduled finished time is in late July.

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Speaker 2: It may extend to August, but we're hoping that it

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Speaker 2: will be late July. So we just really need to

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Speaker 2: work on doing that as soon as possible and wherever

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Speaker 2: that will work with a contractor to get that done.

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Speaker 1: I mean that is like it is taken quite a

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Speaker 1: while for those businesses. I've no doubt that they are

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Speaker 1: going like they're going to lose revenue and I'm sure

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Speaker 1: it'll look lovely once it's finished. But I mean, is

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Speaker 1: there any compensation to those businesses? Is there anything that

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Speaker 1: can be done to try to support them further?

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Speaker 2: No, Look, it's a really tricky trade. City of Downe

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Speaker 2: was given the three million dollars from the Northern Territory

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Speaker 2: government with a specific project to green and cool that

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Speaker 2: Smith Street, and I guess the same as recently we

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Speaker 2: saw Cavanah Street the upgrade and the medium done there

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Speaker 2: and that had disruption onto businesses there. We got you know,

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Speaker 2: negative feedback in relation to that. I guess it looks

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Speaker 2: great now people are happy. But unfortunately, when we are

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Speaker 2: doing this greening within the city and especially in the CBD,

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Speaker 2: there is going to be inconvenience that needs to be called. Well.

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Speaker 1: I mean, even as we're talking now, somebody said, Katie,

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Speaker 1: can you please ask the council about the works on

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Speaker 1: Smith Street. There has been a lot of dissatisfaction on

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Speaker 1: social media about the effect that it's having on businesses

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Speaker 1: on the street. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Look, all I can do is apologize again on behalf

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Speaker 2: of City of Darwin. It's I guess really we're the

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Speaker 2: do the works green and cool and upgrade, upgrade our

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Speaker 2: CBD or wet we can't do the work.

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Speaker 1: Do you feel as though there was adequate consultation with

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Speaker 1: those businesses beforehand?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we did station in the middle of last year

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Speaker 2: the full consultation and eighty percent of residents or people

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Speaker 2: that participated in that engagement said that they were they

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Speaker 2: wanted to see the greening and cooling and they picked

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Speaker 2: the option with the Byklanes. Then in February of this year,

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Speaker 2: we put out the initial letters to all stakeholders in

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Speaker 2: the city, so that includes the businesses saying hey, this

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Speaker 2: work is pending, and then a week before it starts.

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Speaker 2: There's also letters and as a result of those letters,

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Speaker 2: there's always the opportunity for briefings with City of Darwin

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Speaker 2: offices ad needed for particular areas of the works.

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Speaker 1: All right, well, Simone Sawnd is the CEO of the

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Speaker 1: City of Darwaen. We are going to have to leave

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Speaker 1: it there. As always appreciate you joining us in the studio.

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Speaker 1: Thank you very much for your time.

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Speaker 2: Thank you