Job Introduction
Planning Officer (Career Grade - Development Management)
Your new organisation
Born out of Local Government Reorganisation in 2019, Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council have come together to form the 10th largest urban local authority in England. It is a place where culture and heritage meet innovation and modernity, village meets town, country meets coast, creativity meets digital, businesses flourish and people thrive. The potential for investment and economic growth is huge.
With over 15 miles of beautiful, world-renowned coastline, the area has excellent transport links, with rail and road connections nationally and to London, as well as international flights from Bournemouth Airport.
Its communities are vibrant and diverse, with an outstanding quality of life, where everyone plays an active role. It is an area where people love to live, learn, work, explore, invent and relax.
BCP Council has a culture of openness to ideas and experimentation in how they do things and welcome imaginative, creative and ambitious thinking. There is a corporate transformation programme underway that seeks to make the best use of technology to deliver the best possible services to the area’s communities.
BCP Council is consistently in the top ten busiest local planning authorities in the country, representative of our diverse area, overall strategic growth and development opportunities, inward investment interest and premier location on the south coast as the place to live, work and play.
BCP Council has ambitious plans for growth to meet its housing and other development needs. This therefore represents one of the most exciting planning opportunities in the country where you will perform a key role in helping to deliver outstanding planning outcomes that achieve the appropriate balance between meeting growth ambitions and respecting the area’s outstanding natural and built environment.
In recognition of this, the planning department is shaping itself into being one of the fastest growing and best performing local planning authorities in the country, both in terms of speed and quality of decision making. Come and be part of our excellent and supportive team and help us deliver this vision.
Your new role
BCP is seeking curious, creative and ambitious individuals to be a part of their journey in planning for the future growth and prosperity of the region. We are looking to welcome candidates with the desire to make an impact and feel confident sharing their ideas. The Councils team ethos is one which encourages collaboration and thoughtful contribution towards how the Council delivers their planning service, to best serve the interests of the community and region.
Within your role as a Planning Officer, your accountabilities will include:
- Appraise and make recommendations on a range of planning applications against the Local Plan(s), regulations, and legislative frameworks, to ensure that applications are compliant with requirements and BCP Council’s needs.
- Conduct public consultations in line with Council policies to ensure that all parties affected by potential development can provide comment and appropriate input.
- Respond to enquiries from the public, Councillors, prospective developers and all other customers to deliver timely and constructive advice and information.
- Provide planning related advice and guidance to enable all customers and interested parties to submit development applications that will be aligned to the Local Plan(s) and requirements and therefore will be approvable.
- Prepare reports and draft appeal statements to defend the Council’s decisions.
- Undertake occasional presentations to the Planning Committee to enable effective decision-making by the Committee.
What you'll need to succeed
- Degree in Town Planning or related degree and/ or experience and ability to demonstrate transferable skills
- Member or eligible to be a member of the Royal Town Planning Institute or ability to demonstrate ability to work towards membership.
- Experience of working in a Local Authority planning department and dealing with planning applications is desirable.
- Knowledge of planning legislation such as Town and Country Planning Act, and governmental planning framework.
- Understanding of the development management process.
- Ability to provide professional advice and guidance, and to present information to a range of stakeholders in a clear manner.
- Ability to manage a case load of planning applications and appeals.
What you'll get in return
- Flexible, tailored and accommodating hybrid working arrangements to suit a wide variety of applicants
- Access to newly modern, newly refurbished office hub location in the heart of Bournemouth town centre
- Excellent pension scheme
- Cycle to work scheme
- Family support services
- Wellbeing, Employee support and Counselling services
- Supportive and collaborative working environment in which to develop your career
About BCP Council
BCP Council provides services to a diverse community of 400,000 residents and employs more than 5,000 people. Our area includes over 15 miles of beautiful world-renowned coastline. We can offer career defining roles to transform and improve services. By working with us, you can help deliver a vision of a thriving, word-class, prosperous and inclusive place for generations to come.
Our Benefits
We offer an excellent benefits package to colleagues. Find out more on our website.
As a result of the creation of BCP Council in 2019, we are working on simplifying our terms and conditions of service and will be creating a single pay structure which is to be applicable for all employees. It is important to us that we offer benefits that our colleagues value as part of their total employment package and we are reviewing these to make sure we have it right. We are in the process of establishing a timescale for implementation and colleagues joining us will be included in these changes. This is expected to be in place in 2024.
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