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The Friday Five 01.07.22

Published on: 1 Jul 2022

Five wheel [square]1. MULTIPLE POSITIONS, SOUTH NORFOLK AND BROADLAND COUNCILS

Location: Long Stratton and Norwich

The jobs:

  • Area Planning Team Manager
  • Principal Planning Officer
  • Planning Officer
  • Graduate Planning Officer (apprentice) 
  • Landscape Architect 
  • Ecology, Biodiversity and Tree Manager 
  • Assistant Conservation and Tree Officer 
  • Design Officer 
  • Heritage Officer 

“South Norfolk and Broadland Council have an ambitious growth agenda with some significant projects to deliver, including large scale residential schemes and urban extensions, key employment sites including enterprise zones, and an emerging local plan for Greater Norwich to deliver against.

“We have various roles available in our newly expanded development management team covering a wide range of differing expertise, skills and experience to deal with the scale and level of work coming into the team.

“The two councils receive circa 4,000 planning applications year, covering a diverse area including urban areas, rural areas and vibrant market towns, and serve approximately 260,000 residents and 10,000 businesses across 161 parishes.  Our work therefore encompasses both urban and rural planning, residential, retail, commercial and agricultural development.”

Wymondham town sign [square]Fun fact: In 1549, Robert Kett - a tanner and wealthy farmer from Forncett in South Norfolk - led a revolt ostensibly against the enclosure of common land by wealthy landowners. Marching from Wymondham on 8 July, Kett and his impromptu army of peasants, workers, artisans, farmers and more, tore down fences on a ten mile march to the outskirts of Norwich, where they refused offers to disperse without consequences and drew up a list of grievances.

Their 29 grievances addressed the growing power of the landed gentry, legal restrictions on common people and the adverse impacts of economic change on common men and women, which were going unheeded by regional and national rulers.

It was one a series of rebellions that took place throughout the period expressing the discontent of common people against social and economic change that was working against them and in favour of the wealthy.

As discussion broke down over the ensuing weeks, the rebels - now 16,000 strong - took possession of Norwich itself, prompting a lengthy and violent battle with the royal army, sent to quell the rebellion. The battle ended on 27 August, with the rebels’ defeat and Kett’s capture. He was tried for treason, found guilty and executed.

But he wasn’t forgotten. Kett’s rebellion looms large in the names of streets, schools and pubs  in Wymondham and Norwich. There is a plaque on the walls of Norwich Castle and the rebellion has been recorded in novels, plays, poetry and even music. 

Find out more and apply

2. PLANNING MANAGER (CLIENT SIDE), HAMPSHIRE

Location: Winchester, Hants

The job:  “Our client is a boutique property company specialising in commercial development, investment and advisory, which has accrued a wealth of experience enabling successful development of complex sites and the maximisation of portfolio value.

“The group is a dynamic practice which manages its own land and business park portfolio and offers unparalleled development services to its high-net-worth client base. The firm manages the full development life cycle from acquisition to disposal and all requirements in between.

“The requirement is for a charismatic and confident development and planning manager capable of site assembly and necessary co-ordination of consultant team to deliver planning consents and maximise the intrinsic value on development sites.

“The role will include:

  • Site appraisal and identification of key risks.
  • Planning feasibility report completion.
  • Planning application assembly, coordination, and engagement of consultant terms.
  • Negotiation of S106/278 Agreements, monitoring, and discharge of obligation pre-commencement conditions.”

Winchester College [square]Fun fact: Winchester College is, apparently, the oldest school in Britain still operating from its original buildings. Founded in 1382 by William of Wykeham (Bishop of Winchester and Chancellor of England), the school maintains 18 grade I, six grade II* and more than 70 grade II listed buildings – all of which are still in use.

The school was founded originally to educate ‘poor scholars - ie, boys from families whose income was less than five marks sterling (£3 6s 8d) per annum (by comparison, the reasonable living for a yeoman was £5 per annum). It was founded in conjunction with New College, Oxford, for which it was designed to act as a feeder, a model that was copied by Eton College half a century later.

Nowadays the school’s roll has changed somewhat and it charges fees of close to £46,000 per year. Nevertheless, around one in five pupils receive financial assistance from the school in the form of means-tested fees, which can range from just 5 per cent of the full fees upwards.

Being so old and prestigious, the school has many many famous alumni and has produced no end of politicians, judges, clergymen, writers and poets; but also sportsmen, teachers, naturalist, adventurers and a Jack the Ripper suspect (WIlliam Montague Druitt). It also has no end of odd traditions, including its own distinct slang which comes from a variety of eclectic sources: homework is referred to as toytime, for example, (toys is a wooden stall with a seat and cupboard where a pupil works and keeps his books and may come from the French word toise meaning ‘fathom’, the original width of a toys); brum is ‘bankrupt’, which comes front he Kentish brumpt; ‘brock’ - ‘to bully’ - survives from Old English broc, meaning ‘badger’ - and so on.

Traditions survive, but times change: from 2022, Winchester will admit girls to its sixth form for the first time. It’s only taken 640 years…

Find out more and apply

3. PLANNING OFFICER/SENIOR PLANNING OFFICER, WARWICK DISTRICT COUNCIL

Location: Warwick, Warwickshire / Hybrid

The job: “As a planning officer/senior planning officer you will manage and determine a caseload of planning applications including a wide range of development proposals and major development schemes; provide detailed advice at the pre-application stage and represent the Council in public and at appeal.

“You will be enthusiastic, self-motivated, and willing to learn, whilst being able to work with minimal supervision. You will also have excellent communication skills and be able to work to tight deadlines, whilst focussing on delivering good customer service and high-quality development.

“In return, you will work in a friendly environment where you will be fully supported in your role whilst having the opportunity to gain experience and develop your skills within a busy planning team.”

Warwick Castle trebuchet [square]Fun fact: Warwick Castle is home to a Ursa, reconstructed Medieval trebuchet - a kind of giant catapult with a long throwing arm - that is capable of hurling an 18 kilogramme weight some 200 metres (at speeds greater than 240km/h).

The earliest recorded use of trebuchets in war is from ancient china, possibly as early as the 4th century BCE. Gradually the weapon moved westward and by the 12th century was a widely used weapon of war in European and Middle Eastern contexts.

Basically, it was a ‘siege engine’ which would be wheeled up to the outskirts of a city under siege and used to launch large projectiles at the city walls in an attempt to breach them. But they were also used to hurl all kinds of nasty things into the city itself, from flaming projectiles to dead animal carcasses and sewage intended to spread disease.

The one at Warwick Castle, built in 2005, stands an incredible 18 metres high and weighs 22 tonnes. They were huge, unwieldy weapons that were rapidly phased out with the invention of gunpowder, which provided a more portable means of destroying things and killing people.

Find out more and apply

4. ASSISTANT PLANNING OFFICER, EAST DEVON DISTRICT COUNCIL

Location: Honiton, Devon/ Homeworking

The job: “This is an excellent opportunity for an aspiring planner to acquire important skills and experience and build the foundation for a career in planning.

“Our development management team deal with in excess of 2,500 planning or related applications a year and as an assistant planning officer, you will assist with the processing of householder and other related planning applications, which will include undertaking site visits, assessing proposals, negotiating with applicants and preparing written reports.

“You will also provide planning advice to members of the public, over the telephone and in person and carry out research on areas of land or specific buildings in relation to historical records, land designation and policies.”

Thames through East London [square]Fun fact: Pamela Ann Clements - better known by her professional name of Pam St Clement - spent a large and happy portion of her childhood living on a farm near Exmouth. Though born in Middlesex in 1940, the girl who went on to become Pat Butcher in Eastenders, was put into foster care at the age of just two, after her mother died of tuberculosis.

Having bumped around various places for short periods, she finally found herself on the farm in a place that she came to think of as home and where she spent the bulk of her adolescence (when not at boarding school - her father was managing director of a large toy manufacturer and married five times).

Initially a teacher, she eventually went to drama school and gave herself the professional name of St Clement, after the street in which her parents had lived when first married.

Though best known as Pat Butcher, a mainstay of Eastenders from 1986 until 2011, St Clement has a long and varied acting CV. She started with a small theatre company int he early 70s and quickly graduated to minor roles on popular TV programme such as The Onedin Line, Van der Valk, Emmerdale Farm, Minder and the wonderfully named Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense.

She also appeared in a number of films in the 1970s and 80s, including Hedda (with Glenda Jackson) and Scrubbers, about a borstal for girls...

Alongside film and TV she remained a theatre stalwart. But St Clement will always be associated with Pat (or "PAAAAAAAATTT!") the former prostitute and ex-wife of Peter Beale whose lengthy run in the show included four marriages, multiple affairs, a variety feuds and a spell in prison for drink driving. 

Find out more and apply

5. PLANNER, CHESHIRE EAST COUNCIL

Location: Cheshire

The job: “In Cheshire East, our towns and villages, parks and gardens, historic buildings and new developments are a source of immense civic pride. So we’re looking to preserve local history and protect our beautiful spaces – all while supporting the council’s ambition to be more open, fair and green.

“Whether you’re a new graduate, or a senior planning professional, we can promise you a rewarding career in one of the most forward-thinking councils in the country. With a crystal clear local plan, a uniquely supportive environment, and a team approach that will help you to overcome the most complex planning challenges. So together, we can make a difference for generations to come.”

Earthworms [square]Fun fact: The World Worm Charming Championships are held each year, on a late Saturday in June, at a primary school in Willaston, Cheshire.

This, er, unusual event requires competitors to ‘charm’ as any worms as they can from the earth in half an hour, Each competitor is allotted a three metre square patch and charming techniques include drumming the earth, playing music and pushing implements into the soil. Digging is not allowed.

In a dry year it’s not unusual for many competitors to charm no worms at all. But in a wet year… the record in fact stands at 567 worms. In half an hour. That’s some world class charming right there.

A silver worm trophy is awarded for the single heaviest specimen and a gold worm trophy to the charmer who tempts the most worms to the surface of their patch. All worms, of course, are returned to the wild unharmed (though possibly slightly discombobulated).

Find out more and apply

Photo credits | Carmina Photography, Shutterstock; Amelia Mortimer, Shutterstock; iStock; Ink-Drop, Shutterstock; Bernhard Richter, Shutterstock