Russell Edwards Email and Phone Number

Project Manager responsible for the delivery of a range of capital works schemes for the Council including education new builds and extensions, civic building works and refurbishments, and public realm.

- Line manager responsible for a team of Resident Services Officers delivering a fast paced, customer focused front line social housing management role. Responsible for ensuring all tenants and leaseholders live in safe, clean and well managed housing. Working within a highly politicised environment dealing with high profile and emergency incidents and ensuring exceptional standards of customer services.-Budget management of approximately £1m pa covering estate improvement works, capital delivery works, estate cleaning contracts, repairs and maintenance and resident involvement initiatives.-Experience of a wide range range of policy and legislation, including Housing Act and Localism Act.-Responsible for the creation and implementation of portfolio including policy procedure and best practice guidelines.-Close working with delivery partners in Investments delivering housing schemes across the patch. Working with partners to identify and create new dwellings within existing stock, and identifying possible development sites within the patch.-Heavily involved in enabling and supporting successful partnership working with Police, Fire Service, Local NHS Trusts and services Wardens, Anti-Social Behaviour Teams, Third Sector Organisations, Social Services, Regeneration, Registered Providers & Registered providers, legal officers and teams, cleaning staff and contractors, local Tenant and Resident Associations, Local Councillors and Members of Parliament.-Dealing with challenging situations through negotiation or direct enforcement.

-Responsible for delivering and maintaining an effective Performance Management framework for Brent's Regeneration & Major Projects department. -Development of performance management systems, and delivery of regular performance scrutiny meetings at both departmental and divisional levels.-Management of departmental Risk Register.-Working with a variety of divisions including Major Projects, Property and Asset Management, Planning & Building Regs, and Housing to develop high quality business plans. Responsible for researching, managing and creating the departmental Service Plan.-Working on project team to embed and support the departmental bespoke project management framework used to deliver all major capital projects within the organisation.-Supporting Regeneration Officers in the development and delivery of area masterplans such as North Circular Road, and Wembley City.-Development of key policy documents including Child Poverty Strategy, Regeneration Strategy, Property Strategy and Employment Strategy.-Project management of various regeneration projects including highly praised and award winning 'Windows for Willesden' Outer London Fund high street regeneration project, delivered with the use of a project management frameworks based on PRINCE2 methodology.-Providing support and project management capacity to programme and project delivery partners across various regeneration schemes in the borough.-Responsible for contract and performance management of Brent's employment arm 'Brent in2 Work'.-Responsible for working on significant change management projects to deliver savings for department and council, while minimising negative effects to service delivery, staff and organisation.-Insight gained into importance of research and policy in regeneration schemes, effective delivery through project management, partnership working, negotiation, procurement, and rigorous consultation.

-Deputy Manager for a team of 10 officers responsible for support services, validation and processing of planning applications, and later also for Building Control applications.-In-depth knowledge of Planning Law including permitted development. Deaing with a wide range of planning related enquiries by telephone, face to face, by letter and email-Advising customers of planning applications, and assisting customers in submitting high quality planning applications-Responsible for ensuring tight validation and consultation deadlines are met with regard to planning application process.-Responsible fro validating major planning applications, calculating floorspace and fees, and creating planning application description.-Responsible for creation of planning committee meeting agenda and pack-Liaising with a range of partners and stakeholders including Members, other internal departments, local area groups, solicitors, architects and applicants.-Responsible for compiling and publishing planning department performance statistics-Dealing with a range of staff management issues including sickness absence, performance reviews and recruitment-Deep insight into the importance and significance of the planning process and the impacts of this on the local community and the borough as a whole-Responsible for maintaining and testing planning database 'Accolaid'-Responsible for managing document scanning contract

-Responsible for managing a maintaining a busy front-line planning information desk-First contact for a variety of planning enquiries for the planning department, including enforcement, permitted development and application validation-Responsible for 2 temporary members of staff-Responsible for managing local land search requests from business, residents and solicitors-Dealing with difficult and sometimes very angry customers-Experienced in validating planning applications for permitted development