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Speaker 1: If you've been down Smith Street lately, you might have

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Speaker 1: been asking yourself what's going on? There are fences up

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Speaker 1: and for many of the local businesses there, it's been

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Speaker 1: a pretty tough time. I think you'd have to say

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Speaker 1: is the street appears to be closed for businesses on

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Speaker 1: one side, but the businesses are anything but closed. They're

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Speaker 1: open and they are very keen for you to continue

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Speaker 1: to support them while these council works are underway. Now

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Speaker 1: joining me in the studio are the owners of McCarn

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Speaker 1: stop and Copy Stop, Richard and Jules. Good morning to

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Speaker 1: you both. Lovely to have you both in the studio. Now,

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Speaker 1: how long ago did the work on Smith Street get underway?

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Speaker 2: The work started and of March, start of April yep, yeah,

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Speaker 2: we defenses going up fairly late actually because of the

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Speaker 2: late green currently.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, what like from your perspective, what kind of impact

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Speaker 1: has it had on the business on the Carn't stop

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Speaker 1: on Smith Straight.

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Speaker 2: I think, like you said, you know, the street appears

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Speaker 2: to be closed. I think people from the other side

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Speaker 2: are finding hard to cross the road and the car

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Speaker 2: parking essentially they take they're removing nineteen car parks. But

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Speaker 2: obviously with the works at the moment, people are finding

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Speaker 2: it really challenging to get to us.

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Speaker 1: So at the nineteen car parks they're being removed long term,

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Speaker 1: are they correct, Yes, But at the moment, like it's

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Speaker 1: a situation where you literally can sort of just park

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Speaker 1: on one side of the straight right.

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Speaker 3: Is there's just parking on one side of the street. Yes,

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Speaker 3: very limited at the moment. I think it's really kind

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Speaker 3: of difficult to actually find easy car parking there, so

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Speaker 3: people are having to park into Woolies and then taking

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Speaker 3: out car parks for people who need to use the

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Speaker 3: supermarket itself. So for us at the moment, it's with

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Speaker 3: the fencing up, with the lack of car parking, it

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Speaker 3: certainly has affective businesses for us. We've seen kind of

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Speaker 3: a drop in our numbers over the last two weeks

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Speaker 3: in particular, yeah, right, and for us as well, we've

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Speaker 3: just started doing dinner trade and it was going really well,

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Speaker 3: you know in terms of numbers. We're just growing up

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Speaker 3: and we're just talking about that earlier. For us. Now

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Speaker 3: over the last two weeks it's slowly seen a drop off,

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Speaker 3: you know, and that's for us that's concerning because leading

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Speaker 3: into the dry season as well. We're really hoping, you know,

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Speaker 3: to continue to build that side of the business.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely, and you want to offer something to Territorians that's

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Speaker 1: a little bit different. I was saying to you guys

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Speaker 1: off air. I took my daughter there for dinner last Thursday.

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Speaker 1: Then her and her friend went there on Saturday night

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Speaker 1: for dinner because it is like it's a great little

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Speaker 1: place to go and it's you know, a beautiful food obviously,

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Speaker 1: but as you've said, you know, without those car parks,

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Speaker 1: and because the fence is so sort of high, it

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Speaker 1: really you know, the street feels quite closed off. Even

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Speaker 1: people going to vote. I would imagine throughout this week

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Speaker 1: you're wondering exactly we conduck in to go and vote

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Speaker 1: if those fences have to stay up the whole time

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Speaker 1: that this work gets underway.

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Speaker 2: No, defences are not going to stay up the whole time.

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Speaker 2: I mean, based on your timeline, they're closing our side

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Speaker 2: of the street and then they will start working on

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Speaker 2: the other side of the street, which would then impact

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Speaker 2: the outer side. Yeah, that as it goes along, Even

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Speaker 2: with the double pedestrian they've only opened up the second

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Speaker 2: pedestrian crossing for the polling, so once the polling is finished,

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Speaker 2: they're actually going to close off that that right from

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Speaker 2: our under that's what they're going to do. So Yeah,

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Speaker 2: So the limited access to to you know, to our

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Speaker 2: side of the street, as.

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Speaker 1: I mean you touched on a moment ago. The impact

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Speaker 1: that it's having on the business, like, is that something

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Speaker 1: you can quantify as the trade sort of like at

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Speaker 1: night time? Has it dropped, you know, fifty percent or

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Speaker 1: have you got have you got any idea at this

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Speaker 1: point or is it still a bit early to tell.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, looking at the numbers over the last two weeks,

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Speaker 3: it's probably about a free percent drop of Yeah, and

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Speaker 3: for us that is, Yeah, it's significant to our business

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Speaker 3: because that loss of forty percent also does mean not

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Speaker 3: so much in terms of but for our team as well,

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Speaker 3: so they're not getting the same shifts. Yeah, So for us,

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Speaker 3: we've got to be really mindful in terms of what

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Speaker 3: our look like and things.

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Speaker 1: But what are customers saying to you?

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Speaker 2: Look, every day we asked you getting customers asking the

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Speaker 2: questions like, oh, what's happening you know, or when they're

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Speaker 2: doing so, so when how long is this going to be?

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Speaker 2: So you know, like there's a lot of people who

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Speaker 2: still doing on what's happening, Katie, Yeah.

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Speaker 1: And what are they telling you, Like, what's the council

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Speaker 1: saying to you, because I know I asked the CEO

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Speaker 1: Simone Saunders about it last week. She said that, you

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Speaker 1: know that it's regrettable that it's having an impact on

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Speaker 1: businesses like you guys, but that work needs to get underway.

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Speaker 1: I mean, what, like, what do you feel needs to

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Speaker 1: happen here?

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Speaker 3: From my point of view, I think probably better consultation.

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Speaker 3: I think, you know, for us, at the beginning of

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Speaker 3: the consultation process, we felt like of businesses were just

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Speaker 3: lumped in so we were just same as everyone else,

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Speaker 3: you know, but at the end of the day, we're

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Speaker 3: the ones having a business. There were the one paying

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Speaker 3: council rates. So for us, I thought that was a

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Speaker 3: little bit disappointing. And you know, for us, we're trying

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Speaker 3: to remain positive, trying to move forward. So you know,

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Speaker 3: we're trying to proactive organize a meeting with council to

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Speaker 3: find out what the scope of works, you know, provide

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Speaker 3: feedback in terms of what that would look like for us,

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Speaker 3: and you know, maybe work together and a lot of

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Speaker 3: the kind of comments that came through from the traders

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Speaker 3: that attended a meeting that we organized, was probably probably

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Speaker 3: not taken on board what we felt. You know, we

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Speaker 3: talked about the fencing, we talked about some of those elements,

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Speaker 3: and then you know, when the fencing went up, it

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Speaker 3: currently looks like the current states. So for us, you know,

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Speaker 3: that was really kind of frustrating as well, like why

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Speaker 3: bother it seemed like there was already a preconceived idea. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: and talking about the works as well, it would really

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Speaker 3: be good to see some core flutes or some posters

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Speaker 3: actually advising people maybe look maybe making it look a

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Speaker 3: little bit.

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Speaker 1: Nicer as yeah, and telling people exactly what's going to

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Speaker 1: go on, Like have they given you an indication when?

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Speaker 1: First off, I think when those fences are going to

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Speaker 1: come down, and then when the work's actually going to

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Speaker 1: be complete.

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Speaker 3: The most recent update the high impact works were men

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Speaker 3: to be completed in July August, so yeah, the project

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Speaker 3: was only supposed to run until July. Most recently, the

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Speaker 3: update says now August, and that was in the inn

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Speaker 3: ten years as well, so you.

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Speaker 1: Know it's not direct with you guys.

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Speaker 3: No, So yeah, we do get a weekly update, but

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Speaker 3: that was also in the Nten News as well. But

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Speaker 3: for us, you know, the project only started five weeks

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Speaker 3: ago and we're already a month behind apparently, So for

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Speaker 3: that kind of things, you know, it's yeah, we added.

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Speaker 2: Ones in the shop, you know, watching them work, it's

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Speaker 2: it's like it just feels like there's no sense of urgency,

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Speaker 2: you know, tree theaty, I'm still packing out a coffee

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Speaker 2: shop and then there's no workers out there. There's no contracts, so.

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Speaker 1: Nobody's out there, and you got I mean that would

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Speaker 1: be frustrating, right because you're thinking, this is having a

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Speaker 1: huge impact on my business and there doesn't seem to

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Speaker 1: be working work happening all day long.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think at the end of the day, like

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Speaker 2: you know, who is holding the contractors accountable for the

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Speaker 2: delay in this whole this whole project.

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Speaker 1: I think it's a fair question to ask because for

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Speaker 1: you guys, this is having an impact on you in

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Speaker 1: terms of running your business. It's having an impact on

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Speaker 1: your staff in terms of their shifts, it's having an

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Speaker 1: impact on customers as well, So you want it to

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Speaker 1: happen as quickly as possible. Do you think once it

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Speaker 1: is all complete? I mean, are you are you supportive

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Speaker 1: of it more long term in terms of how it

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Speaker 1: is supposed to look once it's finished, or have you

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Speaker 1: not really been given the consultation to know exactly what

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Speaker 1: it's going to look like.

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Speaker 3: We're trying to remain positive and ultimately, like Jaws, is

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Speaker 3: actually the really positive one. Probably a little bit more

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Speaker 3: skeptical at times, but to me, you know, you know,

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Speaker 3: at the end of the day, if we have a

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Speaker 3: really you know, green street, a cool street, that's great, yep,

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Speaker 3: concerned there's still a lot of traders. Is the car

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Speaker 3: parking so in front of us we lose five car parks.

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Speaker 3: You know, they're putting in a parking station for bicycles

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Speaker 3: and scooters, they're putting in a new walkway, garden beds,

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Speaker 3: so convenience wise, long term for us, we're not going

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Speaker 3: to be as better off. But hopefully with a nicest street,

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Speaker 3: it does actually achieve what council's looking to do, you know,

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Speaker 3: bringing more visitors, but you know, hopefully not at a

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Speaker 3: detrimental existing customers and so forth as well.

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Speaker 2: Well.

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Speaker 1: Look, I hope that you know that it happens sooner

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Speaker 1: rather than later. I mean, what is your message for

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Speaker 1: counsel today, is it please you know, get this completed

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Speaker 1: as quickly as possible. What is your message for them?

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Speaker 2: I think definitely get this complete as soon as possible.

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Speaker 2: And also in the meantime, really days only two paestrian

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Speaker 2: walkways and it's just cleaning those up. Like it's we

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Speaker 2: walk the streets every day. We you know, we cross

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Speaker 2: the street and they're dirty, their smelly, ye and they're

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Speaker 2: not pleasant. Like at the moment it's beautiful drives seas

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Speaker 2: and there's people walking already. We have cruise ships coming

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Speaker 2: to town. We have you know, thousands of people walking

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Speaker 2: down the streets, and I think, yeah, it's important for

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Speaker 2: them to even be working harder to clean up the

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Speaker 2: rubbish and the streets.

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Speaker 3: And I reckon that.

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Speaker 1: I like, I think what you're saying as well about

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Speaker 1: having some core flutes or something up so people know

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Speaker 1: what's happening too and realize that those businesses are still

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Speaker 1: open or even if there was an opportunity and correct

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Speaker 1: me if I'm wrong, but for you guys to have

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Speaker 1: some signage up on that fencing maybe and for other

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Speaker 1: businesses to have some signage on that fencing saying hey,

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Speaker 1: we're still open. And you know a bit of an

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Speaker 1: arrow pointing to where those businesses are. And I know,

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Speaker 1: I'm sure you're not alone. I'm sure that the other

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Speaker 1: businesses on the street feel exactly the same issue. And

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Speaker 1: you've probably had those discussions with Thumb.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely, like all the businesses down there, we all

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Speaker 3: share the same sentiment. I guess for us as well,

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Speaker 3: it's a good sense of community as well. You know,

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Speaker 3: so everyone is supporting each other. And you know, for

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Speaker 3: us as well, the continue support that we get from

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Speaker 3: our community, people who come and find us every day,

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Speaker 3: though it's difficult that making that effort, and for us

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Speaker 3: that's really kind of we're really thankful.

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Speaker 1: Well, it is some of the best food in Darwin

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Speaker 1: and coffee, so I know that they will always drive

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Speaker 1: their best. But look, you two are also such positive people,

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Speaker 1: and I know that it's really jewels probably not in

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Speaker 1: your nature to even you know, be on the radio

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Speaker 1: wanting to talk about this, because you are such a

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Speaker 1: positive person and you're always so positive about your business.

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Speaker 1: So I really appreciate you both coming in and talking

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Speaker 1: to me. But keep that positivity because the community really

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Speaker 1: appreciates it. And I know so many people love what

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Speaker 1: you guys do so thank you so much for your

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Speaker 1: time this morning, both of you, Jules and Richard, thank you,

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Speaker 1: Thank you, Kenny,