Estate and Fleet

I have senior leadership team responsibility for Delivery of Major and Minor Project Workstreams and overall Estates Strategy along with SLT lead for Evidential Management at West Yorkshire Police. 

I really enjoy making a difference and supporting the front line. Everyday is challenging but full of variety, supporting my team and delivering outcomes, meeting new people and learning daily about differing areas of the force and the challenges we face, even after 12 years I am still learning.

I have a professional background in construction and project management at both a strategic and local delivery level within the public section. I started in sstates as a Project Manager and have evolved in various roles over the last 12 years, along with the evolution of the Directorate to Estates and Business Services.

The delivery physical projects provides many visual examples of success, but I am most proud of the Directorate as we have developed it overtime to be well structured, cost effective, well respected and trusted.

I am also the National Chair for Estates Benchmarking. bringing all 43 forces in England and Wales together to showcase, cross reference and learn from each other, also enabling us all to showcase the amazing work we all do to maintain reduced running costs, rationalisation of the estates and ongoing improvements.

I lead a Directorate which has three departments:

1. Estates - I oversee everything building related from mending a leaking tap to project managing the construction of large new buildings.
2. Business Support - I provide administrative support for our colleagues across West Yorkshire Police.
3. Evidence Management - I manage all Force Evidential Property Stores.

My staff provide a range of professional skillsets, technical leadership, contract management and enabling support to operational policing.

My own role is to: set the strategic direction; have oversight of all activities; have accountability for annual revenue budgets exceeding £40m and annual capital budgets up to £30m; provide a framework of expectations and decision making to ensure we can provide efficient and effective services, and promote continuous improvement.

I like working in an operational business that provides a vital public service by being able to bring a business and commercial mindset that improves standards and value for money across a varied and interesting portfolio. I like working with a wide range of people, enjoying the accountability to my Chief Officer Team and motivating and enabling my teams to keep driving improvement.

I came into this role by chance in many ways. I am a Chartered Surveyor who had worked mainly in the private sector but my previous role had been in a Public Sector Regional Development Agency leading place based economic regeneration delivery. I loved working in the public sector delivering outcomes for local communities. When the agency was to be closed due to a political decision post financial crisis, I saw the role come up at West Yorkshire Police and thought why not!

I can think of two great achievements:

1. Driving value for money. Our estate costs less to run now than it did when I joined 14 years ago, meaning with austerity we have been able to protect resources for frontline policing.
2. The other is despite the above, our buildings and facilities are in much better condition and more reliable for our staff, achieved by reducing the size or our estate, focusing our investment in the right areas, having clearer standards and driving performance from our contractors.

My role is to ensure the fleet of vehicles are all serviced, maintained and roadworthy. There is a great sense of satisfaction knowing I am helping where I can to ensure Humberside Police can carry out their duties.

I have over 30 years experience in the motor trade. I started work as a technician for Emergency Services Fleet Management in 2019. Through hard work, dedication and previous knowledge of management and supervision, I gained this role in 2021 and love everyday.

I am very proud of the fact that in a short time in this role I have become the go to person for many departments and stations throughout Humberside Police. When problems, issues and concerns arise I am the one they contact to help. Together with my team we make things as painless as possible with minimum disruption.

 

A typical day in my job involves managing the workload of vehicles through the vehicle workshop with 13 technicians at my disposal. I also have front of house staff to make sure that all parts for the vehicles are ordered correctly. I report to my fleet engineer if there any issues and rectify them to make sure that the vehicle maintenance unit runs as smooth as possible. Recently we have ordered lots of new vehicles and their specifications are completely different to the last batch of vehicles. The police equipment is very high spec. Different departments get different vehicles depending on their needs, for example armed response is more likely to have Volvo SUV whereas Dog Handlers have a Skoda Octavia estate.

Even though I have only been at Lancashire Constabulary for short time, I have learnt a lot. I come from technical background rather than managerial and I have received management training course helping me develop my managerial techniques. I’m proud to be part of a team that gives officers the support and help they require so they can keep our streets safe and look after our communities.

I am involved in all aspects of vehicle role preparation at Humberside Police. A vehicle will arrive in my workshop as you would see it in a showroom and leaves as a fully operational police or fire car. The role preparation includes (but is not limited to): emergency lighting; sirens; ANPR; livery; and all supporting systems.

Throughout the process we will design, fabricate and scratch our heads over how we can integrate systems to provide the best possible product to help officers complete their jobs.

What I enjoy most is the diversity of work we are tasked with: working on anything from a boat, to a fire engine, and constantly challenging ourselves to learn new skills.

I saw a job advert in the Hull Daily Mail for a mechanics position. After successfully taking that position I found myself drawn to the challenge of shoehorning a ridiculous amount of equipment into police cars and the satisfaction of the end result!

My greatest achievement is receiving a Chief Constable's commendation and a Commander's commendation within the same year. 

My role at Cheshire Constabulary is to manage the day to day running of fleet services to deliver on force strategies, manage projects, policies, and procedures. I lead on the implementation of the future fleet operating model to provide maximum asset utilisation, fleet availability and operational effectiveness and a smooth transition to a low carbon future.

No day is the same: working in a dynamic environment and the fast-paced requirement to make decisions across multiple disciplines is what keeps it exciting, however, honestly the best part of what I enjoy is the thrill of seeing my team flourish as well as satisfaction when implemented changes are proven to be effective.

The majority of my working life (25 years) was working for a leading Global HGV leasing, rental and logistics company progressing through the ranks to eventually become the UK Finance and Commercial manager for the Logistics division. In 2019, I moved into a Strategic Management role in the police after my previous company relocated their head office to Birmingham.

Ater a few years of working in policing I formed a strong working relationship with the Head of Fleet and transitioned into the role of Fleet Services Manager combining my previous transportation experience and strategic policing knowledge.

In December 2022 we launched ‘Fleet Forward’ which was a major transformation project for Cheshire fleet. We implemented over a 100 individual changes across 4 distinct areas:

• Health and Safety
• Quality Standards and Culture
• Performance
• Workshop Refurbishment

Across 2023 and as a result of these changes, we have seen both a significant performance improvement and tangible upturn in staff morale.  

The Vehicle Maintenance Unit (VMU) services a wide variety of vehicles, and a fleet size of over 930.  New Technicians are often surprised at the accelerated wear and tear that these vehicles endure and how much more in depth our servicing is compared to regular car garages. The VMU is a key role to front line policing. I enjoy the variety of the fleet we work with, the constant development and evolution of vehicles as they move towards EV/carbon neutral vehicles. I also like having an input into the commissioning of new police vehicles.

Lancashire Constabulary provides support with ongoing personal development and assistance in providing courses and help towards job-related certifications. They are committed to helping employees get a good work/life balance by offering a flexible work pattern. The welfare support I have received in the past has been great. Occupational Health helped me with recovery from an injury by funding physiotherapy sessions that fit in with my work schedule as it is on site.

My role is to lead the development and implementation of Cheshire Constabulary fleet strategy including the design, purchase, commissioning, maintenance and subsequent disposal of the force’s transport assets. I provide representation for Cheshire Fleet Services on a national and regional platform.

What I enjoy most is making a difference, and delivering a first class service to our policing colleagues. I am so proud of the Cheshire Constabulary fleet team; we are lucky have a number of proactive individuals who share my vision and support my (often mad) ideas to improve what we do.

I love learning about new and evolving technology, tools and equipment and adapting what we do to support operational policing. I enjoy learning from others and am always looking to see better ways of doing things.

I started as a vehicle technician for a retail dealership straight from school after which I moved dealers and brands a couple of times, gaining skills and experience before finally deciding that I wanted to progress off the shop floor.

I realised I needed to understand more than just how to fix cars. So, I secured a job as a Technical Receptionist at very busy Ford Dealership and stayed there two years.

In 1995 the opportunity came to join Greater Manchester Police as a vehicle technician and although this meant going back “on the tools” I knew it was a fantastic opportunity to get inside a leading public service organisation from where I could hopefully flourish and progress again, and so began my policing career journey and my love for making a difference and enabling the front-line officers to do their vital role.

I soon progressed through the ranks from Leading Hand to Supervisor to Assistant Manager before finally becoming Workshop Manager in 2012. a period which saw massive challenges: everything from the Manchester Arena bombing, through the Commonwealth Games, and the Salford and Oldham riots. In 2018 an opportunity to apply for Head of Fleet at Cheshire Constabulary which I was a successful applicant for, and I am now in my sixth year in the role.

My greatest achievement resolved around the implementation of vehicle telematic, which enabled us to drive significant utilisation improvements by sweating the assets to absorb the full uplift of officers without any capital growth or impact on operational performance.

Leading the culture transformation, thanks to the hard work and dedication of my team, we have focussed every member of staff on delivering continuous improvement. Now, I am so proud to lead a department which has an enviable customer service reputation of being proactive with a can-do attitude.

However, none of this would have been achieved without Julie Cradock. She is an inspirational leader, do-er, and go-getter. She leads from the front and delivers for the constabulary. The staff like and respect her and she gets results. She identifies and delivers change projects and uses her initiative. She also stepped up and covered for me for six weeks whilst I was recovering from surgery, doing my job, her job and delivering a major pay regrade project for the workshop – she is a Force of Nature!