Cheshire East Council has appointed Phil Cresswell as executive director for place.
He will oversee key services such as highways, waste and recycling, planning, transport and parking, economic development and other place-based services.
Mr Cresswell will start at the council on December 2 2024.
He previously worked as executive director for regeneration, housing and environmental services at London Borough of Hounslow.
And before that he was at Stoke-on-Trent City Council as director of housing, regeneration and growth.
Rob Polkinghorne, chief executive of Cheshire East Council, said: “I would like to welcome Phil to Cheshire East and look forward to working with him as he leads the council’s place-based services.
“Phil brings with him a wealth of experience as a senior leader and he joins us at a critical time for the organisation, as we embark on an ambitious programme of whole-organisation transformation and improvement.”
Mr Cresswell said: “Cheshire East is a great place with huge potential.
“I am looking forward to joining the council and meeting and working with staff, councillors and partners, to make a real difference for residents and business in the borough.
“The council delivers some great services and has some significant infrastructure projects and investment opportunities in the pipeline.
“I also recognise that, in common with many other local authorities, the council is facing significant financial pressure and needs to change radically over the next few years.
“This presents a great opportunity to do things differently and to maximise the economic potential of the borough to improve outcomes for Cheshire East residents, our communities, our businesses and our environment.”
To the Resident. Very rarely do you see a Senior Officer making a public statement, they hide behind elected representatives. Just read the latest news media reporting events and tell me you have confidence in public servants. See the item on the new PCC response to being questioned.
Good luck,I truly hope you have a better idea of how to run your area of responsibility and run it as a business and not a bottomless pit funded by the taxpayers.
Please choose your team wisely as most of our high ranking officials have proved to be more than incompetent at both providing a service and costing it effectively without thinking of ways they can milk us for more money.
How can the CEC take on anybody in such a senior role when they’re bankrupt & making severe cutbacks to services. It doesn’t add up financially.
I am a resident too. I am sure you have a lot of experience and knowledge of the Borough and your input would be well received. All I would add is that there are 360,000 plus residents and they’d be very busy if they tried to meet all of them individually.
I welcome Mr Cresswell and hope that he is successful as we really need it at this time. I would comment re his statement “about meeting and working with staff, Councillors and Partners to make etc etc “. No mention of meeting residents (who are consumers) as I believe a fundamental problem with CEC is the lack of local knowledge and a “I know best attitude” etc. I have previously asked for a site meeting with the CE or Director but this was not taken up. I need some convincing that Senior Officers just drive a desk rather than seeing the issue head on. Please tell me I am wrong.