The Friday Five 07.01.22
Hello 2022. If you’re half as good as 2021 then - no, let’s not go there. Let’s look at some planning jobs instead. Here’s this week’s Friday Five.
1. PLANNER, PERSIMMON HOMES NORTH SCOTLAND
Location: North Scotland, Perth
The job: “As a planner with Persimmon Homes you will be part of a small yet busy team, handling a varied range of planning applications for both strategic and immediate sites, of varying scales and complexity.
“The role offers a broad area of responsibility for all areas of the development process, including planning policy and promotional work along with detailed development management and delivery.
“Reporting to the land director the main duties are (but not limited to):
- assessing land development opportunities against company criteria.
- providing advice internally on planning matters.
- preparing and submitting planning applications.
- attending meetings with all relevant parties during the planning process.
- dealing with ongoing planning matters and submitting information to clear planning conditions.”
Fun Fact: The Stone of Scone (Stane o Scuin in Scots and also known as the Stone of Destiny) is an oblong block of sandstone that has been used in the coronation of monarchs of Scotland for more than a thousand years. Remarkably, it was last used during the coronation Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.
As you might expect of such an ancient object, its early history is a matter of legend. One story has it that Fergus, son of Erc, the first King of Scotland, had the stone transported from Ireland for his own coronation in 498 CE. Another claims that the stone has a Biblical origin as the stone of Jacob. The truth is more prosaic: geologists have determined that the stone was actually quarried in the vicinity of Scone itself.
Its history can apparently be authenticated from 841 CE, when it was reputedly taken from the island of Iona to Scone Abbey in Scone, near Perth. After England's Edward I invaded Scotland in 1296, the stone was seized and transported to England, where it was used as a coronation seat (pictured) for English monarchs and, from the Treaty of Union in 1701, Scottish monarchs, too.
On Christmas Day 1950, four Scottish students took the stone from Westminster Abbey and returned it to Scotland, prompting a police operation which resulted in the object being shipped back to London four months later. In 1996, finally, The British government conceded that the stone should be kept in Scotland. It's now on display at Edinburgh Castle, prior to being shipped to a new museum at Perth City Hall in 2024.
2. PLANNING OFFICER (PLANNING POLICY TEAM), ADUR AND WORTHING COUNCILS
Location: Worthing, West Sussex
The job: “The planning officers for both councils work together as one team to cover this area. This is an exciting and challenging time as we are progressing the Worthing Local Plan towards adoption and have recently commenced a review of the Adur Local Plan.
“You will have an important role in helping to take these forward, along with related documents and guidance. We work in partnership with a variety of bodies and organisations which adds to the interest of our work.
“The policy team is involved in a variety of work and you will be involved in several aspects of these, including:
- housing delivery and monitoring
- GIS Mapping
- sustainability and biodiversity
- economic regeneration.”
Fun Fact: Leo Sayer has sold millions of albums and has had 20 worldwide top-10 hits. But naturally, we're concerned with the fact that he wrote his hit 'Moonlighting' having been inspired by Montague Street, the main shopping thoroughfare in Worthing. Its concrete benches are referenced in the lyric, although the area has changed a lot over the decades since Sayer wrote the song. A plaque commemorating his writing of ‘Moonlighting’ has been put up in the street.
The diminutive seventies singing sensation was a resident of nearby Shoreham before going to art college in Worthing. A fan of Formula One, he's since become an Australian although he still tours.
3. DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT TEAM LEAD AND PRACTICE MANAGER (PLANNING), NORTH YORKSHIRE (single council from 2023)
Location: North Yorkshire
The job: A range of planning opportunities are becoming available as the eight district, borough and county councils in North Yorkshire merge to form a single new council in April 2023.
Fun Fact: The entirety of Yorkshire is replete with literary heritage – from the Brontë sisters to Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden. Nineteenth-century writers Lewis Carroll and Bram Stoker were galvanised by the area’s dramatic coastline, and the open moorland also fed the works of Laurence Sterne (of Tristram Shandy fame).
Harrogate, a spa town in North Yorkshire that also hosts its own annual literary festival, was the scene of one of the greatest real-life mysteries – the disappearance of world-famous crime writer Agatha Christie – which would have puzzled even Hercule Poirot.
For 10 days, Dame Agatha – author of 66 detective novels and 14 short stories – evaded everyone by assuming a fake identity, leaving just a cryptic letter saying she was visiting Yorkshire.
On 3 December 1926, police found her abandoned car at a picnic site at Albury Downs in Surrey. It kicked off one of the biggest manhunts the UK had known. More than 1,000 officers were put on the investigation. Even fellow crime writers Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Dorothy L Sayers joined in the search.
Occult fan Conan Doyle took Christie’s discarded glove to a medium, and Sayers studied the scene of her disappearance. The story hit the headlines partly because Christie’s just-published The Murder of Roger Ackroyd had been a global success.
Christie was discovered staying at the Swan Hydropathic Hotel in Harrogate. Many rumours emerged, but the truth was that her husband Archie admitted that he was having an affair with another woman and wanted a divorce. He left their house, Styles, in Sunningdale, Berkshire, to see his mistress in Godalming, after which Agatha skedaddled.
She never explained her disappearance so it was surmised that she was suffering from amnesia, depression, or a breakdown. The public reaction was not kind, as many thought it was all done for publicity; others decided she was trying to make the police think her husband killed her to stop news of his affair leaking out. The tale was later told in Agatha (1979), directed by Michael Apted, starring Vanessa Redgrave as Agatha, Timothy Dalton as Archie, and Dustin Hoffman as a newspaper reporter following the story.
4. PLANNING OFFICER, GREAT YARMOUTH BOROUGH COUNCIL
Location: Great Yarmouth, Norfolk
The job: “Are you looking for something really exciting? Do you want the opportunity to shape one of the country’s best loved coastal holiday resorts with a burgeoning offshore renewable energy sector? Great Yarmouth is an ambitious council and we are looking for someone to meet our residents’ and members’ high expectations.
“Do you have a firm grasp of development management and the ambition to positively engage with topics across the planning spectrum? Planners here enjoy a coastal location adjacent to the Broads National Park, town centre regeneration and a stunning historic environment.
“Do you have experience that you can bring with you from either a local government setting or the private sector? Would you feel confident presenting your professional recommendations to a planning committee? We want someone who is motivated, dynamic and enthusiastic who feels that they could make a positive impact on the borough. If you fit the bill, we would really like to hear from you.”
Fun Fact: The Hippodrome Circus in Great Yarmouth is one of just two purpose-built permanent circuses still in operation in England. It's one of just three worldwide that has a circus floor that singles into a pool.
The remarkable building was built by showman George Gilbert in 1903to designs by architect Ralph Scott Cockrill. Built of concrete but with brick and terracotta facing, it has a facade consisting of three bays with two towers tat include Art Nouveau relief foliage patterns. Its main cornice has a frieze of carved owls.
But who has performed there and what kind of shows? The Hippodrome's own website boasts: "Throughout the century the intimate arena has played host to an incredible variety of entertainment, from amazing water spectacles and stage shows to cinema and cine variety and even wartime use as a military practice shooting range! Apart from always presenting the very best in circus, Lloyd George held political rallies here, Lillie Langtry sang, Little Tich clowned, Max Miller joked, Houdini escaped, the world’s finest clowns and circus personalities performed."
The website surmises that a young Charlie Chaplin may even have performed at the venue.
Having fallen somewhat into disrepair, the Hippodrome was bought in 1979 by Peter Jay or Peter Jay and the Jaywalkers, an early 1960s beat group that once toured with The Beatles. Among other things, he restored the venue's sunken pool and began to host regular 'Circus Spectaculars'.
The Hippodrome, now a listed building, hosts more conventional fare, too. Recent years have seen performances by the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Moscow State Circus, The Kooks and Duane Eddy.
PRINCIPAL PLANNING OFFICER (MAJOR PROJECTS), STOKE ON TRENT CITY COUNCIL
Location: Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire
The job: “An exciting opportunity has arisen for a principal planning officer to lead our major projects team within planning services.
“You would support the team in managing the strategic and more complex developments through the planning process. It is a demanding role, and you must be able to demonstrate substantial experience in dealing with large scale projects, the skills to lead a specialist team and the ability to work well under pressure.
“Stoke-on-Trent is a city on the up. We have a can-do attitude and are proud to be at the forefront of helping to deliver the city’s growth ambitions. We recently secured £56m from the government’s Levelling Up Fund and you would be part of the team helping to deliver on this significant investment.”
Fun Fact: The name ‘Stoke’ is apparently derived from the Old English word 'stoc', which basically meant simply 'place'. In Stoke's case, it possibly meant any of the following: place of a dairy farm, place of a summer pasture, crossing place, meeting place or place of worship. Most likely of these is 'crossing place', as Stoke was a crossing point on the Roman road that ran from Derby to Chesterton.
Naturally, 'Place' is not hugely descriptive, and so the name of the local river was subsequently added to make this particular Place stand out. Ironically, while other places called Stoke exist, the vast majority of us these days will think of Stoke as being specifically Stoke-on-Trent. So today just 'Stoke' would probably do. Although then there's also the whole 'six towns' potteries thing to consider...
Image credits | iStock; Yuliia Hurzhos, Shutterstock; Spatuletail, Shutterstock; Camera4Art, Shutterstock; iStock
