NEWS RELEASE

Hon Annette King MP for Rongotai

Paul Eagle, Wellington City Councillor

17 December 2014

City acknowledges former Councillor, Leonie Gill

Today’s decision by Wellington City Council to name a local pathway in Kilbirnie after the late Leonie Gill, the long serving Labour Wellington City Councillor for the eastern suburbs, gets the thumbs up from Labour’s Rongotai MP, Annette King, and Wellington City Councillor, Paul Eagle.

The ‘Leonie Gill Pathway’ will stretch from the Queens Drive end of Coburn Road in Kilbirnie and through grass spaces that currently link Ross Street, Yule Street and along the rugby fields of Rongotai College to Tirangi Road. This entrance is around the corner from the Gill family home in Coutts Street, Rongotai. It will also connect to Lyall Parade – the Lyall Bay beachfront – via a connecting path that runs along the back of Bunnings and the Lyall Bay Bowling Club.

“This acknowledges and celebrates a person whose life was about putting local people first” says Ms King and Councillor Eagle.

Leonie Gill stood for council in 1998 off the back of a strong, local campaign to stop the shares in Wellington Airport being sold by the then council.

She was a member of Labour’s Kilbirnie Branch in the Rongotai electorate, “She never forgot her Labour roots – and helped fly the flag for Labour with me in the eastern suburbs with pride”, says Ms King.

Mrs Gill grew up in a strong Methodist family where her parents, the late Len and Joyce Brown, both served the community and were leaders in their own right.

Councillor Eagle said “Family meant everything to Leonie, it underpinned her whole approach to how she interacted with her constituents. People came to her home and were able to sit down in her lounge, have a cuppa and discuss their issue. If you stayed long enough, you would get dinner too.”

Mrs Gill is survived by her husband Carl, and daughter Jacqui Noema.

“Mum loved people and just wanted them to be treated fairly by the council. It was her life. She would be humbled by this acknowledgement – but the Pathway means we can walk from home to the Kilbirnie shops and quietly remember her”, says Ms Noema.

The pathway will cost $600,000 and include signage, the installation of a new path, park benches and trees. There will also be new roading humps installed in Ross and Yule Streets. Construction has started already on the improvements.

© Scoop Media