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The Friday Five 05.04.19

Published on: 5 Apr 2019

A round-up of five of the best, most interesting, significant or unusual jobs on Planner Jobs this week.

Sumer is Icumen In [square]1.PLANNING IS ICUMEN IN

What?

Deputy director, regeneration and assets, Reading Borough Council.

Where?

Purpose-built civic offices in the town centre in Reading, Berkshire.

The job

"This is a new role within the organisation and there is a distinct emphasis on delivery – turning good ideas and intentions into action on the ground. You’ll play an influential role in accelerating economic development, physical regeneration of the town centre and facilitating housing growth.

"Recently named the second-fastest growing city in the UK, Reading is already a regional powerhouse, with high employment levels, a well-qualified local population, and an established and respected university.

"The council is playing a central role in creating the right environment for growth, assembling a new management team across a range of services, to create consistently high expectations, shared corporate accountability and an unswerving focus on high quality services."

Reading is the county town of Berkshire and has a population of 163,000 in the town and 218,000 in the borough. It's well-located for London (via Crossrail) and the wider south east. 

Fun fact

Sumer Is Icumen In (Summer Has Come In), the oldest known song in the English language, was discovered in manuscript form in Reading Abbey. Sometimes known as the Reading Rota, it's a song to mark the arrival of Summer and is the oldest six-part polyphonic music, dating from 1240. The composer is is thought to be W De Wycombe, a precentor in Herefordshire. If you don't know it, it's been used in many films and television programmes, but most notably at the infamous climax of The Wicker Man.

Find out more and apply

Reindeer [square]2. ESCAPE FROM THE HERD

What?

Planning officer (development planning), Cairngorms National Park Authority.

Where?

Converted traditional houses in the small town of Grantown-on-Spey in Moray, north-east Scotland. Yes, at the heart of the Cairngorms National Park.

The job

"You will be responsible for helping to deliver the Cairngorms National Park Authority's planning service and an ongoing programme of work to prepare, implement, monitor and review the local development plan and the National Park Partnership Plan.

"Cairngorms National Park is more than just an idyllic place to work, the Park Authority is one of the UK’s Top 100 best not-for-profit companies to work for."

Established in 2003, the Cairngorms is the UK's largest national park, spanning  1,748 square miles in north-east Scotland. A spectacular landscape, it has at its centre a montane plateau higher than 1000 metres (the coldest, snowiest and highest in the UK), extensive native pine forests, moorland and a rich and diverse cultural landscape along its straths and glens."

Fun fact

The Cairngorms plateaux support Britain's only herd of reindeer. After being re-introduced in 1952 by a Swedish herdsman, they now roam the high Cairngorms. The herd is now stable at around 150 individuals, some born in Scotland and some introduced from Sweden.

Find out more and apply

Lamppost in Stratford-upon-Avon [square]3. A NOVEL (LAMP)POST

What?

Senior planner (enforcement), Stratford-on-Avon District Council.

Where?

Elizabeth House, a handsome character building opposite a row of Tudor houses close to central Stratford-upon-Avon.

The job

"The planning enforcement team is a busy team receiving over 700 enforcement cases a year. This is a key role in providing a professional planning input on enforcement cases. This post, supported by the planning manager, will also be responsible for drafting decision reports, formal notices and defending the council’s position at appeal stage."

Stratford itself is a mid-sized, historic market town in Warwickshire with well-preserved Tudor buildings. It's best known for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare and the home of several theatres run by the Royal Shakespeare Company. The wider Stratford-on-Avon district (not upon, to distinguish it from the town) has a population of around 125,000. Mostly rural, it includes the towns of Alcester, Southam and Studley.

Fun fact

Stratford-upon-Avon is home to a number of decorative lampposts, sponsored by councils and countries form around the world, which reflect scenes and characters from Shakespeare's plays. The most photographed is the one sponsored by the state of Israel which features both Bottom from A Midsummer Night's Dream and the fiddler from A Fiddler on the Roof, topped by the owl from The Owl and the Pussycat.

Find out more and apply

Andover workhouse [square]4. WORKING TOWARDS IMPROVEMENT

What?

Planning officer - delivery (planning policy), Test Valley Borough Council.

Where?

Purpose-built offices outside Andover town centre, Hampshire.

The job

"This exciting new role is an ideal opportunity for a person with good negotiation skills and a drive for implementing strategic sites to help shape the borough’s new neighbourhoods as places where people not only want to live but flourish. You will have an eye for detail and be able to work in collaboration with a variety of stakeholders to ensure that the planning obligations secured via a legal agreement are delivered on the ground in a timely way. The post will sit within the delivery team of the planning policy service.

"The council is committed to working with communities in helping to shape places. This will be a challenging but rewarding post and you will have the chance to make an impact on delivering great places to live, support the council in developing strategic sites through the local plan process and have a key role in delivering these sites as great places to live."

Test Valley is a mainly rural borough stretching from Southampton in the south to Newbury in the north, with a population of around 124,000. Its main town, Andover, is a mid-sized settlement with a population of around 38,000. The Ministry of defence is the town's biggest employer.

Fun fact

The Andover workhouse scandal of the 1840s was instrumental in leading to tightening up of administration of relief to the poor nationwide as part of a long process of improving support for people in poverty on England. The scandal began in 1845 with the revelation inmates of the Andover workhouse were driven by hunger to eat the marrow and gristle off (often putrid) bones which they were supposed to crush to make fertiliser. The ensuing Parliamentary outcry led to the Poor Law Administration Act of 1847, which revised the existing governance of the administration of Poor Laws by giving a more influential role to MPs.

Find out more and apply

E M Forster [square]5. A PASSAGE TO ABINGER

What?

Graduate trainee town planner in property development, Martin Grant Homes, a family owned business.

Where?

Abinger Hammer, near Dorking, Surrey.

The job

"We have an opportunity for a graduate or someone who has recently qualified to join our busy and expanding land team based in rural Surrey. 

"This role will be challenging, requiring the candidate to be enthusiastic and passionate about learning and contributing to the wide variety of work undertaken by the team in the areas of land and planning."

Martin Grant Homes is a family owned firm founded in 1978 that specialises isn developments at various scales (though mainly small to medium sized) throughout the South East. Abinger Hammer is a village between Guildford and Dorking in Surrey - the entire parish sits within the Surrey Hills AONB.

Fun fact

From 1925 to 1945, the novelist E. M. Forster lived with his mother Alice Clare in Abinger Hammer in a house designed by his father, the architect Eddie Morgan Forster. Forster was obliged to leave this home in 1946 as the landlord refused to renew the lease.

His stay in the village is memorialised in the title of a 1936 collection of 80 essays, articles, reviews, poems and notes: Abinger Harvest. But in 1934 he also wrote the Abinger Pageant, with Ralph Vaughan Williams providing the music, in aid of the church restoration fund. 4 years later he wrote England’s Pleasant Land for the Dorking and Leith Hill Preservation Society. Many locations and characters in his books are based on the places and people he encountered in the village and its environs.

Find out more and apply

Photos | British Library (Sumer is Icumen In manuscript), iStock, Len Williams (Stratford lamppost), Keristrasza (Andover workhouse)