The Friday Five 02.08.24
A round-up of five of the best town planning jobs advertised on Planning Jobs this week – accompanied by a selection of place-based facts.
1. PLANNING OFFICER, CORNWALL NATIONAL LANDSCAPE (PART-TIME, FIXED CONTRACT)
Location: Remote working, three days a week, until March 2025
The job: "Cornwall National Landscape (AONB) is seeking a highly motivated and organised planning professional with landscape expertise to take on the role of part-time planning officer. Sensitive planning and development within the national landscape is key to the enhancement and long-term protection of the high-quality landscapes of the 12 Sections of Cornwall National Landscape.
"The purpose of the post is to provide strategic advice and tactical response on planning and development within the Cornwall National Landscape. We're looking for a team player who will work alongside two planning officers, but also have the ability to work independently. You'll also work with partners in delivering policy advice and will work with the wider team to achieve the delivery of the management plan."
Fun fact: Bodmin Moor, one of the 12 areas that make up Cornwall's national landscape, has inspired many tales, legends and myths over time has inspired numerous legends, myths and tales over the year – not least through its association with Arthurian legend and the so-called Beast of Bodmin, a suspected big cat roaming wild on the moor.
It’s a bleak and atmospheric place – and, historically, a haven for smugglers of contraband silks, tea, tobacco and brandy from ships along the coast and into local markets. Allegedly, early 19th-century smugglers would practice ‘wrecking’ – using lists along the shore to misguide ships and force them to run around or onto rocks, from there they would be raided by the smugglers.
One of the smugglers’ historic stopping and storage points as they moved their illicit wares around was The Jamaica Inn, a mid-18th century tavern built alongside the main route through the moor (now the A30). In 1930, a young budding novelist called Daphne du Maurier stayed at the inn.
The heady mix of the inn’s age and character, the moody location and stories of smugglers, the tales of smugglers gestated in her mind for some years and eventually resolved itself into her fourth novel, Jamaica Inn, a somewhat melodramatic adventure published in 1936. This was followed two years later by her most famous work, Rebecca.
Both were turned into immensely popular films by Alfred Hitchcock and du Maurier’s reputation grew exponentially – she’s now considered one of Britains foremost writers whose work often carried sinister and supernatural elements that made it discomforting and mysterious.
The Jamaica Inn still stands, still saves food and drink and still provides rooms for guest who want to explore the mysterious moors. It also contains a Museum of Smuggling and various items owned by Daphne du Maurier, including her writing desk and typewriter.
2. SENIOR STRATEGIC PLANNING OFFICER/PRINCIPAL DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT OFFICER, PETERBOROUGH CITY COUNCIL
Location: Peterborough, Cambridgeshire/Hybrid
The job: "Peterborough is on the cusp of a growth and regeneration revolution. We are ambitious and aspirational. Our planning team is recognised within the council as being vital to the continued growth of the city and, as a result of continuing investment in our planning service, exciting opportunities have arisen for a principal development management officer and a senior planning policy officer.
"Peterborough is a unique combination of a new town and historic cathedral city, and one of the fastest growing places in the UK. Located on the A1 and the East Coast Main Line, we're in a highly accessible location that makes us an attractive place for new business and homes.
"We already have significant regeneration planned for key areas of our city like our Station Quarter and new university, as well as new urban extensions on the edge of the city, plus many other developments of all scales. We've attracted more £80m in government funding to facilitate our plans. We have a clear vision for how we want to expand and we're attracting significant private investment into the city. Work has recently commenced on our new local plan setting out our growth ambitions to 2044.
"If you would like to be part of our growth and regeneration revolution, please do get in touch."
Fun fact: Another great English writer whose legacy can be overlooked – John Clare, ‘the Peasant Poet’ who was born and lived much of his life in and around the village of Helpston. Whereas du Maurier was born into a literary family, Clare’s parents were farm labourers and he grew up in abject poverty at a time when the Industrial Revolution was destroying traditional rural livelihoods.
Despite becoming a farm labourer himself as a child, young John managed to get enough of an education to inspire a love of literature and poetry in particular. By the time his first collection was published in his 20s, Clare had been an agricultural labourer, a potboy in a pub, a gardener, a lime burner and had travelled with Gypsies.
But poetry was his vocation and he developed a singular talent for writing evocatively about rural life, nature and his highly personal experiences of social and personal alienation and mental instability.
He suffered poor health throughout his life, yet married and had six children. The pressure of providing for them drove him to drink. He was also torn between the literary world of London that lauded him and the simpler, more down-to-Earth world in which he mostly lived – the two were poles apart and created some kind of chasm within the man himself.
He slipped into delusions, hallucinations, strange beliefs and spent much of his later life in asylums. Yet in his moments of lucidity, he was capable of writing the most extraordinarily powerful poetry about selfhood and the turbulence of a fractured self – just check out the sonnet I am! for evidence.
Clare was largely forgotten until later powers rediscovered his verse in the early 20th century and his reputation has steadily grown. He’s now considered one of the greatest poets to have merged from the “labouring class” in England and his work is rightly celebrated today.
Should you ever find yourself at Helpston, take a look at the John Clare Cottage, his home from 1793 to 1832, which has been restored using traditional building methods.
3. PLANNING MANAGER (DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT), EAST SUFFOLK COUNCIL
Location: Lowestoft or Melton, Woodbridge, Suffolk/Flexible working
The job: "As part of a planning leadership group, you'll lead East Suffolk Council’s development management and planning enforcement functions, ensuring the delivery of a quality service for the determination of all planning applications (and associated consents) to secure the delivery of sustainable and well-designed development and growth across the district.
"You'll support the head of planning, building control and coastal management in delivering identified work arising from the East Suffolk Strategic Plan and associated service plans and strategies. You'll be responsible for overseeing many of the most complex development proposals, including those that are a corporate priority, as well as providing professional support and guidance for colleagues on such cases."
Fun fact: The modest fish finger: invented in Lowestoft by Birds Eye foods in 1955. They had actually been around for a while in the USA in a different form (using herring – yuck!) but Birds Eye founder, Clarence Birdseye – yes that was his actual name – worked out that people much preferred cod to herring.
This discovery was made during testing of the herring-based frozen fish sticks in the UK in the mid 1950s – a time when herring stocks were large and the fish abundant. Potential consumers in Southampton and South Wales were invited to taste test the herring stick against a ‘blander’ cod-based fish stick which was being used as a control. To Birdseye’s surprise, his testers far preferred the cod to the herring.
And so cod-based fish sticks were born, refined and developed in Lowestoft until, in 1955 and now coated in breadcrumbs, there were ready for market. But there new print had no name. The company was leaning towards the rather prosaic Battered Cod Pieces but Mr Birdseye, trusting the instinct of the crowd, polled his employees, asking them to choose a preference from a list, Once agin the decisions as unanimous – Fish Fingers.
They’ve since become a staple of the British diet and now even gourmet places serve up a fish finger sandwich (which may be among the finest meals know to humankind). As for Clarence Birdseye himself, he died the following year. But in a life spanning seven decades, during which he was an inventor, naturalist and entrepreneur, he basically invented frozen foods. And fish fingers may just be his finest legacy...
4. PLANNING ENFORCEMENT LEAD OFFICER, SWINDON BOROUGH COUNCIL
Location: Swindon, Wiltshire
The job: "At Swindon we want our town to be the best it can be. Our ambitious vision in the new Swindon Plan is supported by realistic transformation programmes, with the people of Swindon at their heart.
"As a key member of the council’s planning team, you'll have a direct impact on delivering The Swindon Plan through the planning process. We can only build a better Swindon if we have the skills in place to use our planning powers to make sure that development meets our expectations and that of our residents.
"To help deliver the ‘Swindon Plan’ we are looking for an enthusiastic planning enforcement lead officer to lead our team who will play an important part in all the planning enforcement functions of the council.
"As the planning enforcement lead, you'll report directly to the borough’s chief planning officer and will be responsible for a small team dealing with a diverse range of priority planning enforcement cases in the borough. A responsive planning enforcement function is critical to delivering our vision for Swindon and your role will be to lead in that area.
"You'll manage a small team and bring your knowledge and experience of relevant legislation relating to planning enforcement to a local authority where you'll manage your own workload to meet targets, working both in the office and on site."
Fun fact: Apart from being a regional centre for business, and home to many tech and pharma companies, it seems that Swindon in Wiltshire is synonymous with travel – and we don’t just mean its Museum of the Great Western Railway, a 6,500-square-metre space opened in 2000 and housed in part of the town’s former railway works.
Swindon also lays claims to having the scariest road junction – the famous ‘Magic Roundabout’ (not to be confused with the one in Hemel Hempstead). It's composed of five tiny roundabouts going in an anticlockwise direction, all arranged around a sixth outer circle with vehicles travelling clockwise. Guaranteed to confuse your SatNavs, it's been ranked as one of the hairiest road junctions in Britain, along with Birmingham’s Spaghetti Junction and the Hanger Lane Gyratory System in West London.
But maybe this is part of the reason it’s said to be James Bond’s favourite town, as filming for the franchise has taken place in both the former 58,500-square-metre Renault distribution headquarters building for Roger Moore's finale in A View to A Kill (1985), and a site specially built for Motorola near the A419 in Pierce Brosnan’s entry, The World is Not Enough (1999). Brosnan even called Swindon a “great place”. If Bond says it’s good it must be true!
Beyond this, the town is also home to one of the most famous military aircraft – the Spitfire. Seventy-five years after it first flew, the fighter plane's memory lives on at the Supermarine Sports Club, which bears the name of the company that manufactured the aircraft in Swindon from 1941-44. Originally built in Southampton, the plane’s production moved to a shadow Supermarine factory at South Marston after bombing destroyed the main South Coast facility in 1940. The aircraft were built and tested on the nearby runway (now the Honda test track) before being flown to bases in the UK and all over the world. In all, 121 Mark 21 Spitfires were built in the facility, with another 50 modified Spitfires bound for naval action (which the Royal Navy called Seafires).
5. SENIOR PLANNING MANAGER, AWARD-WINNING REAL ESTATE DEVELOPER, LONDON
Location: London
The job: "An award-winning property developer has an excellent opportunity for an experienced planning professional to join a friendly team, collaborating with the in-house design consultants to obtain planning permissions for iconic developments that are design-led, sustainable and benefit communities.
"The role involves working alongside the senior management team to initially set project objectives and then manage projects through the planning process. You'll also support the land team on planning matters for opportunities in the company’s growing land pipeline.
"Your responsibilities will include:
- Drafting and maintaining project appraisals, budgets and programmes
- Briefing, appointing and managing professional consultants
- Reviewing and interpreting planning policies for specific sites
- Liaising with architects to develop and review schemes that are commercially viable
- Working closely with colleagues to ensure schemes are designed holistically and within budget
- Regularly reporting to the board of directors and project partners for sites in planning phase of delivery
- Providing guidance to the assistant planning manager."
Fun fact: Greater London. We can define it easily, right? Right? Weeeelll, maybe not – not least because there are two different areas officially called Greater London and a fairly lengthy history of descriptions of Greater London that aren’t necessarily consistent with the idea of Greater London that we think of today.
Let’s start with the present: Greater London is, in most senses, the administrative area ‘coterminous’ with the London region. As such, it incorporates all 33 of London’s local government districts. This is the Greater London referred to in the name of the Greater London Authority and it was established by statue in 1965 when the County of London was abolished and replaced by the Greater London Council (now the Greater London Authority – you’re following this, right?)
Then there’s that other Greater London. This is, in fact, the ceremonial county of Greater London and includes just 32 of the aforementioned local government districts because one of them – the City of London – stands apart with its own historic governance arrangements and identity.
As such, Greater London (administrative) covers a land area of 1,572km2 square and has an estimated population of 8,866,000 (2022).
But when talking about Greater London, there’s precedent to include areas that fall within London’s sphere of influence and cross its official boundaries. So we might talk about the Greater London Built-up Area, which extends into the neighbouring counties of Hertfordshire, Essex, Kent, Surrey and Berkshire and has a population approaching 10 million.
Or we might be talking about the Greater London Planning Region, devised in 1927, and which covered a pretty vast 4,810km2 and included more than nine million people. Or indeed, the Metropolitan Police District as it existed before 1965, or the the areas served by the Metropolitan Water Board or the London Passenger Transport Areas – and so on, and so on.
So the modern situation of Greater London (administrative area) and Greater London (county) is actually rather simpler than past iterations of the region broadly known as Greater London. Let’s just leave it there, shall we?
Image credits | Kev Gregory, Shutterstock; Chris Dorney, Shutterstock; Stock Creations, Shutterstock; 1,000 Words, Shutterstock; Rainer Lesniewski, Shutterstock
