Darwin Lord mayor says no ramifications to mall traders from ownership debacle

MALL traders will not suffer the consequences of Darwin council’s perceived ownership of the mall, which has seen it manage and take charge of the infrastructure since 1986

Mall traders will not be impacted by the Smith St Mall debacle which saw an administrative mishap leave the mall under Government ownership.

MALL traders will not suffer the consequences of Darwin council’s perceived ownership of the mall, which has seen it manage and take charge of the infrastructure since 1986.

Darwin lord mayor Kon Vatskalis said the only changes traders could make were in regards to rezoning their properties which had always been done through council.

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“It’s only the mall area, some ramifications if people want to put some additions to the property which will impact the mall, it has to go through zoning and council doesn’t have zoning powers, that goes through government anyway,” he said.

“It was obviously an oversight. It was agreed to be transferred … our people were under the impression it was ours

Mr Vatskalis said the transition was only a technicality and he didn’t expect to many issues to come between council and ownership of the mall.

“It’s going to come to us, we’ve spent a lot of money, done a lot of restructuring, the government of course likes (what we’ve done) and want to put more money into it,” he said

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“For the past 30 years successful councils have put infrastructure and done their things there, it doesn’t matter who does it if we do it and the government are happy with it.”

Mr Vatskalis said council is still awaiting a response from the NT Government.