Peter Mason - Procurement, Assets and Shared Services Portfolio Holder 

Biography
Peter represents Congleton Town East on the Cheshire East Council where he holds the Procurement, Assets and Shared Services Portfolio. He is also a Congleton Town councillor and was previously a Cheshire County councillor.

Originally from the Potteries, Peter worked as a Chartered Quantity Surveyor in Manchester for most of his career. During this time, he worked on a number of housing association schemes, mainly involving Northern Counties Housing Association.  In recent years he ran his own practice in Congleton, from which he has now retired.

As a Cheshire East Council Cabinet member, Peter’s portfolio will include Property and County farms, Procurement through the Authority’s membership of the Cheshire and Warrington Improvement and Efficiency Partnership and Shared services with Cheshire West and Chester Council. Other responsibilities include the Cheshire Pension Fund and major PFI contracts, such as Waste and Extra Care Housing.

What are your priorities within this portfolio?
Initially, the delivery of an office accommodation strategy. There will be several hundred County Council staff transferring from office bases around Chester and, while most will continue to work from their current workplace for the time being, we must create space to enable the transferred staff to move East as quickly as possible.

We have taken the decision that the administrative headquarters will be at Westfields in Sandbach. The first phase is to refurbish vacant and underused space in existing council offices in Crewe and to acquire additional office space as necessary on a short-term lease. Phase two will comprise the reconfiguration of existing office buildings to make maximum use of space and allow staff to be accommodated in Council-owned property. The final phase will involve the vacation of the temporarily-leased property and any other surplus buildings and the relocation of staff to the most suitable location for delivering services.

What is the main message you would like to deliver to Cheshire East residents?
Our new unitary council brings together four existing authorities and gives us the opportunity to deliver more efficient, high-quality, joined-up public services. We want to put the people of Cheshire East first, provide value for money and be locally responsive. The Council will establish its own distinctive characteristics, priorities and ways of working, especially with the public, business community and stakeholders to create a Council of which we can all be proud.

What will present the greatest opportunities within your portfolio?
Cheshire East will be one of the largest of the 125 unitary (all-purpose) authorities in England – there are only 10 larger in population. This gives us opportunities for efficiencies due to scale and, in addition, we will be sharing some services with Cheshire West and Chester in the medium to long-term, where it makes economic sense to do so. Partnerships with the Primary Care Trust, Police, Fire, housing associations and voluntary organisations will help co-ordinate better services for the public and there may be exciting opportunities to form partnerships in the private sector to our mutual advantage.

We will target our procurement resources initially on the major areas of spend where potential efficiencies and savings are greatest. Consideration will be given to economic, social and environmental impacts of our buying decisions.

Cheshire East will lead the newly-formed Cheshire and Warrington Sub-Regional Procurement Hub which will co-ordinate a joint approach to procurement with other authorities and organisations. We are committed to supporting economic regeneration through local buying wherever possible.

Our office accommodation strategy will give us the opportunity to make more efficient use of space, improve energy efficiency and reduce maintenance costs. An important part of this strategy will be the introduction of flexible and mobile working across the whole Council, thereby reducing the need for office space.

How will you judge success at the end of the first year?
Firstly, we would have achieved a seamless transition to the new authority where the public will enjoy a good quality, responsive service without any noticeable disruption. The second indication of success would be the successful delivery of our ambitious budget which shows no overall increase in Council Tax in the first year.

How can residents contact you?
I can be contacted at home on 01260 277362, by email at cllr.peter.mason@cheshireeast.gov.uk or in writing at any of the council offices in Macclesfield, Congleton and Crewe and Nantwich.