Essex County Council

Principal Transport & Infrastructure Planning Officer – Growth and Development (Garden Communities and New Settlements)

Job Description

Principal Transport & Infrastructure Planning Officer – Growth and Development (Garden Communities and New Settlements)

Contract:2 year Fixed-term (with potential for extension subject to budget and workload)

Working Hours:Full-time

Salary:£52,000 - £57,570 P/A

Location:Chelmsford

Closing Date (Period for Applying):06/08/2019

Interviews are scheduled to be held on 19th and 21st August 2019. 

Please note this is a two year fixed term contract with a potential for extension, subject to budget and workload. 

Job purpose

Calling all transport Planners – are you seeking a new challenge?

Would you like to have the opportunity to be at the forefront of creating new Garden Communities? Are you a highly motivated, experienced senior or principal transport & infrastructure planning officer who understands the complexities of delivery of large scale and strategic site and proposals? Are you looking for a new, different and interesting challenge working for a highly motivated team addressing the infrastructure challenge for new garden communities? This is new role will be demanding, yet varied and rewarding.

We are taking the best principles of town planning and applying the technology of the future to create environmentally sustainable places. Planning so that future communities can enjoy a high quality of life with decent affordable housing. This is a rare and exciting opportunity to be part of a new planning partnership approach between the County and Uttlesford District to deliver a strong policy response to proposed large scale Garden Communities in Uttlesford, including development and delivery of area actions plans and masterplans. The Uttlesford Local Plan is currently under examination with the first hearing sessions taking place in July 2019.

This is a unique opportunity to be at the forefront of the growth agenda within Essex. The post, alongside the Principal Planning Officer role will be based 2 days per week in Uttlesford District and the other days at County Hall, Chelmsford within the Growth and Infrastructure Team in the wider ECC Planning Section. Although this post is initially fixed for 2 years, there may well be opportunity for extension, dependent on budget and continuation of the long term projects for the delivery of new garden communities that this role would be leading on. We are seeking a highly-motivated, enthusiastic and experienced planner to join our growing and forward-thinking team to work on specific challenging residential, employment and infrastructure schemes and proposals. The primary focus of the successful candidate will be working with partners on cross-boundary schemes in Uttlesford supporting the delivery of emerging sustainable garden communities proposals; there will also be opportunity to get involved in a range of other significant growth projects elsewhere in the county.

The postholder will be required to work closely with a wide range of public and private sector stakeholders to ensure that Essex’s interests are effectively communicated and protected. Working as part of the team, you would get involved in different projects at the earliest opportunity, supporting them from inception to delivery and providing a robust and co-ordinated response to growth challenges and opportunities as they arise. Excellent project management and communication skills are a must.

As the key point of contact for specific site and proposals, this post would work alongside the manager and other principal planners within the Growth and Development team to co-ordinate a single response to major development proposals, garden communities and large scale infrastructure projects for Essex County Council to ensure that the best schemes are delivered to create sustainable communities.

This is a real opportunity for the right person to shape and influence significant growth projects to ensure that they positively contribute to the local community in the short, medium and longer term.

Could this be you?  

For an informal chat with one of the team, please email your preferred contact details to Growth&Development@essex.gov.uk

Key Accountabilities 

• Single point of contact in relation to infrastructure and sustainable development requirements when engaging with specific large scale development proposals and the implementation phase of bringing forward garden communities.
• Responsible for delivering an efficient and effective service by leading the engagement with other relevant internal professional service area to facilitate and produce high quality, impactful and timely single response from Essex County Council to both pre-application and planning application stages, where there will be an effect on capacity of infrastructure, services and facilities to support new communities.
• Ensure Essex County Council is able to successfully influence the master planning, pre-application and planning application process by helping to secure planning policy compliant planning decisions, which secure the appropriate level of developer funded infrastructure contributions via S106 and other means; as well as and address S106 review clauses as and where necessary, particularly where development viability is raised and accounted for.
• Responsible for providing professional and authoritative advice on specialist/technical matters as well as acting as lead officer advising on and helping guide negotiations on complex and large scale planning applications and proposals.
• Responsible for co-ordinating and giving evidence at public inquiries, examinations in public and in court in order to qualify or defend ECC planning decisions where necessary. 

Key Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Educated to at least degree level with a recognised qualification or equivalent by experience of at least 10 years within the public or private sector.
• Evidence of continuing professional development and expert knowledge in relevant professional area and Chartered membership of CIHT/CILT/RTPI
• Proven experience of successfully managing complex planning projects and proposals with demonstrable evidence of leading or of playing an increasingly major role in helping to deliver them
• Demonstrable knowledge and understanding of planning policy, law and legislation and Government guidance on planning issues.
• Strong understanding of the planning and other processes involved in the delivery of strategic and large scale development and managing the associated relationships between organisations.
• Evidence of ability to co-ordinate and lead a team or supervise staff to ensure that staff are motivated and developed, resources are used effectively and agreed targets and objectives are met.
• Proven experience of giving evidence at plan examinations, public inquiries or similar.

For more information on the garden communities, please click here

For more information on Uttlesford, please click here

As part of employment with Essex County Council (ECC) should your role require a DBS check you will be required to register with the DBS update service. The DBS update service ensures all registered DBS certificates are kept up to date and allows authorised parties to view the status of your certificate. This is an annual subscription and you will be responsible for ensuring this is maintained. For further information on the DBS update service please visit: https://www.gov.uk/dbs-update-service

Essex County Council is proud to offer an excellent benefits package to all its employees. More information can be found on https://www.workingforessex.com/benefits  

Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.

We seek the best talent from the widest pool of people as diversity is key to our success.

If you have any queries regarding this role, or require anything further, please contact the Essex Recruitment Team on 033 005 83330*
*Calls to this number are charged in the same way as calls to numbers starting 01 or 02, please check with your service provider

How to Apply

https://essexcc.taleo.net/careersection/ecc_external/jobdetail.ftl?job=23664&lang=en