Media Stories

Councillor Jenny Condie said she was “open to any way” to simplify council processes, but public spaces outside stores needed to be carefully managed. “We need to be really careful about what we put on the footpath and how we share that space with other users,” Condie said.

Condie said her diagnosis felt empowering and it legitimised her struggles growing up.

She said she now understood the concept of hyperfocus, rather than attention deficit, as other “quieter presentations of the disorder” she experienced.

Jenny “brain the size of a planet” Condie

I sometimes look at Jenny and am reminded of Marvin in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Marvin is a robot with vast intelligence, and he grumbles to Arthur Dent, “I have a brain the size of a planet, and they’ve got me opening and closing doors.”

Jenny doesn’t always get the platform she should get when explaining things. She often breaks down quite complex issues into a plain English version that provides a different perspective you see in media. She’s not always bang on but usually close.

It is all about the detail with accountant-turned-councillor Jenny Condie. If you want to understand the intricacies of, say, resource consent legislation, stop yawning and call Condie.

Which makes her sound bright but dull. While her voice sometimes gets lost among the rambunctious battles, she has been instrumental in her share of firework moments.

She rarely takes the lead on issues so it is hard to point to any big wins or losses but any big hits were always going to be hard with no obvious political allies.

Jenny Condie said the amount of new housing permitted under the new plan would be a significant change. “Restrictive council planning rules contributed to causing the housing crisis. This District Plan is transformational in helping to fix a problem we helped create by allowing more dense housing to be built near the city centre and public transport,” she said, noting that focusing housing along transport lines would help to reduce carbon emissions.

A shock 80% increase in the cost to address Wellington’s ageing pipes is expected to be echoed around the country as councils take stock of what replacements will cost in reality.

“It is basically Covid,” said Wellington City councillor Jenny Condie – cited by colleagues as the expert around the council table on Three Waters reforms – as she blamed supply and labour issues for the cost hike that would come with or without the reforms into how we pay for the running of tap, waste, and storm water.

Councillor Jenny Condie said the notice of motion should have been a media release. "Instead we've had this notice of motion that's taken 50 hours of our chief lawyer's time and probably has cost us, I would guess, $10,000 to prepare this report and bring it to us." The reality was the council did not have many levers to pull on aviation emissions, Condie said.

Councillor Jenny Condie said, as accredited RMA commissioner, she was shocked Free, Pannett and Paul – also accredited commissioners – would attempt to interfere with an RMA decision now before the courts.

Councillor Jenny Condie said more time to consult would not find “magic solutions”.

“The reality of life is that people will strongly disagree with proposals we have as council. I don't see how a delay would improve on the engagement that has happened in the past month,” she said.

"I'm obviously not happy with the performance as it is", said councillor and infrastructure committee deputy chair Jenny Condie. "But I also am realistic that it's going to take us a while for this organisation to get on top of issues that have been developing over a long period of time."

Councillors showed little willingness to back down on the decision they made in June.

“We need to be clear that we don't respond to concerns by going back to where we were before, we respond by moving forward,” councillor Jenny Condie said.

Councillor Jenny Condie hit out against councillors who signed the notice for going against public health advice. “Some protestors have likely already been exposed to airborne asbestos particles due to repeated break-ins and damage to the interior of contaminated buildings and this is deeply concerning to me.

“While elected members acted with good intentions when they signed the notice of motion, it has unfortunately muddied the waters on council’s official legal position, which has confused the ongoing conversations happening between council staff and protest groups.”

Council has now selected a road layout option to prepare for community consultation in February. The new design will improve visibility at driveways and side streets, provide physical separators between the cycle lane and parked cars, and introduce a separated cycle lane through the Island Bay town centre (option 1-D identified in a option analysis report).

This will deliver significant safety and amenity benefits to the community, more quickly and at a fraction of the cost of the layout Council approved in 2017.

At the meeting today Condie noted the city council doesn't have as much influence as people think over the asset because it is the minority shareholder. She said the council was not a good shareholder anyway because it has so many financial pressures. "We just don't have a lot of capital available to invest." Councillors Jenny Condie, Sean Rush, Mayor Andy Foster and Ngāti Toa Rangatira representative Liz Kelly were those who voted in favour (of consulting on sale of the airport shares).

Councillor Jenny Condie reasoned it was a minor inconvenience for Breaker to continue wear a muzzle to ensure the public’s safety.

The committee's deputy chairwoman, councillor Jenny Condie, said the focus publicly has been more on wastewater failures because those have been the high-profile ones.

"But within the council, and certainly within the mayoral taskforce on three waters, we're very aware of the fact that there are also likely to be failures in our drinking water pipes.

"We know we have high water loss in this region. The reality with drinking water pipes is that when they break we don't always notice it."

Councillor Jenny Condie, who presented the paper to councillors on Wednesday, said the changes were in line with the council’s new parking policy, which came into effect last August.

But the council's Infrastructure Committee deputy chairwoman Jenny Condie said they definitely needed help and could not do it without change. "What we've invested is the tip of the iceberg", she said. Condie said Foster's comments were disappointing and inconsistent with the position of the mayor's own taskforce into three water issues.... The taskforce's final report concluded Wellington's approach to water was not working.

The council agreed to its findings, which included actively participating in the Government's national water reform agenda. Councillors also agreed to commit to the concept of an independent, publicly-owned, not-for-profit, water management and asset-owning entity governed and operated under a statement of intent from shareholding councils.

Condie said the substance of the Government's reforms were entirely consistent with where the taskforce landed.

Councillors Rebecca Matthews and Tamatha Paul unsuccessfully tried to remove all pre-1930 character protections. "Character homes do not mean the same thing for a generation that is locked out of housing", Matthews said. But they did successfully increase the walking catchments from railway station stops to 10 minutes, instead of only five. Councillors Jenny Condie and Jill Day found support to increase them from the central city to 15 minutes, instead of only 10. This will allow for building heights of at least six storeys within these catchments.

Councillors Laurie Foon and Fleur Fitzsimons found support for reducing character areas by 71 per cent instead of the draft plan's proposal of 58 per cent.

Councillor Jenny Condie​ passed a resolution to retain four 10-minute parks outside Wellington Dance Studio between 3pm and 6pm.