The Friday Five 08.04.22
1. HERITAGE ENFORCEMENT AND LANDSCAPING TEAM MANAGER, EPPING FOREST DISTRICT COUNCIL
Location: Epping, Essex
The job: “Our local plan is at a very advanced stage and we anticipate receiving the inspector’s final report shortly. The local plan sets out ambitious growth for the district, a new garden town, and the delivery of 11,400 new homes and 10,800 new jobs by 2033.
“The built and natural heritage features are an important part of the character of the district, and you and your team will play a crucial part in protecting and enhancing these features. We have 25 designated conservation areas, 1300 listed buildings, 300 locally listed buildings and over 30 scheduled monuments in the district. Apart from Epping Forest, we also manage 1,500 protected trees subject to Tree Preservation Orders.
“We are looking for an enthusiastic and ambitious individual, ideally with RTPI/NAPE membership or equivalent, to work with us to embrace the key challenges and opportunities to protect and enhance the natural and built environment of our green belt and the towns and villages of our district.”
Fun fact: Waltham Cross, in Epping district, was the home of Roy ‘Pretty Boy’ Shaw, a notorious unlicensed boxer and former criminal who was friends with the Kray twins and spent a good part of his early life in prison for violent offences.
Born in Stepney in 1936, Shaw was involved in illicit activities from a young age. He was friendly with the Kray twins from at least the early 1960s and is said to have explained their peaceful co-existence thus: “They were into protection rackets and I was into blags [robbery with violence]. I never got in their way and they never got in mine.”
In 1963 he took part in an armoured truck robbery, was inevitably caught and sentenced to 18 years in prison. His time in ‘the system’ included a period at Broadmoor Hospital for the Criminally Insane where he received experimental electro-convulsive shock therapy. This, apparently, just made him more violent.
On release he began fighting unlicensed boxing matches and quickly became ‘the guv’nor’ (ie, the undisputed unlicensed champion). Over the next six or seven years, he fought 11 times, winning on nine occasions. His two losses were each to the equally notorious Lenny McLean - also a violent criminal and bareknuckle boxer.
Later on, Shaw declared that he was ‘going straight’ and moved to Waltham Cross, where he lived with his two rottweilers and became, according to Wikipedia, “a businessman and author with numerous financial and non-financial ventures, such as a best-selling autobiography”. He died in 2012, aged 76.
2. DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT TEAM MANAGER, SOUTH STAFFORDSHIRE DISTRICT COUNCIL
Location: South Staffordshire
The job: “We’ve recently invested significant additional resources into our planning service, and we need an inspiring leader to build on our great achievements to date. We want to futureproof the service, to deliver our targets, make a positive difference to the place and people of South Staffordshire and to oversee a hardworking and enthusiastic team of planners. We have some important projects in play right now, including the review of the local plan, and a DCO at West Midlands Interchange, the UK’s most nationally significant rail-served logistics development.
“At South Staffordshire, development management, strategic planning and planning enforcement work together as a team to provide a holistic service, with everyone playing their part and supporting one another. We are also rightly proud of our positive relationship with elected members and our local communities.
“We need someone with the right management experience to take on complex projects, who can mentor colleagues and help them broaden their experience, and who has a ‘can do’ attitude.”
Fun fact: From etymology corner: The unusual name of Weston under Lizard in South Staffordshire (Weston Park pictured) is thought in some quarters to derive from the possible presence of a leper colony on nearby Lizard Hill. And Weston under Lizard was so-called to distinguish it from Weston-upon-Trent.
Why the lizard/leper correlation? Well, lizard in this case may be a corruption of ‘lazar’ - a Medieval term used to describe the sick and diseased, especially those with leprosy.
This does, of course, have a relationship with the Biblical name Lazarus, which means ‘(he whom) God has helped’: St Lazarus was the patron saint of people with leprosy and ‘lazar houses’ were leper colonies - or isolation sites - usually run by religious orders. They were extremely common in the Medieval period and into the Middle Ages. An otherwise uninhabited hill would be a good location for such a place.
However, it’s by no means a certainty as there is, apparently, no record of a lazar house on Lizard Hill and the Lizard in Lizard Hill may well be a corruption of a personal name. Or even an indication that this was a place where lizards were abundant. Who knows?
3. PLANNING TEAM JOBS X8, BOROUGH OF BROXBOURNE COUNCIL
Location: Broxbourne, Hertfordshire
The jobs:
- Planning manager (development management)
- Principal planner (development management)
- Principal planning compliance officer
- Planning assistant (development management)
- Planning monitoring officer
- Section 106 monitoring officer
- Trainee planner x2
“With upcoming developments such as Brookfield Riverside, Brookfield Garden Village, the new Theobalds Business Park, town centre improvements in Waltham Cross and the highly-anticipated Sunset Studios for film, television and animation, Broxbourne is an exciting place to live and work, with the council’s planning team leading the way on these exciting projects.
“The council’s planning team sits within the newly formed place directorate and will be instrumental in the delivery of these projects. The team has been redesigned and has increased its resource to ensure that the team is perfectly placed to deliver the council’s ambitious aims. We are recruiting for posts at all levels and there are clearly defined career paths for the right candidates. If you want to work in a busy, challenging yet fulfilling environment at the heart of the council, then this is the place for you.”
Fun fact: Hoddesdon, a market town within Broxbourne, has a sizeable population of people with Italian origin and a very Italian flavour altogether, as a result of the postwar ‘Italian diaspora’ which saw many poor agricultural workers coming to earn money in the Lee Valley’s market garden industry.
Most of the Hoddesdon Italians came from just two villages in Sicily: Cianciana and Mussomeli. When World War II ended, much of Italy was undeveloped, rural and very poor indeed. Millions left. For the Sicilian villagers, the Lee Valley’s longstanding garden nurseries were an attractive employment proposition and offered a better quality of life than they experienced at home. In many respects they replaced English workers who had moved into factory jobs which offered better and more secure employment.
The story goes that a local farmer sold some of his land to a few Sicilian families, who started their own market gardens. These prospered, attracting yet more Sicilian families to the area. The Lee Valley Growers Association estimates that more than 70 per cent of the 100 or so nurseries in the Lea Valley are now owned by Sicilian descendants, producing 75 per cent of UK-grown cucumbers and 50 per cent of its peppers in their glasshouses.
Nowadays, Hoddesdon in particular and Broxbourne more generally have a strong Italian cultural influence. Aside from many Italian food outlets, the Festival of San Antonio is celebrated in June with a street procession, and an honorary Italian consul is resident at Broxbourne Council and helps Italians with a wide range of matters.
4. PRINCIPAL REGENERATION OFFICER, HIGH PEAK BOROUGH COUNCIL AND STAFFORDSHIRE MOORLANDS DISTRICT COUNCIL
Location: Buxton, Derbyshire, and Leek, Staffordshire
The job: “An exciting opportunity has arisen for a principal regeneration officer within our regeneration team. This role presents an opportunity to make a significant contribution to the future success of the Alliance and is an opportunity to play a key role in making a difference to people’s lives and the environment they live in.
“The ideal post holder will have a background in regeneration, ideally with experience in the development of funding bids, with robust investment business cases that comply with HM Treasury Green Book guidelines. You will be required to work alongside partners to support economic growth and deliver thriving town centres to maximise regeneration benefits and drive forward each council’s growth strategy
“To be suitable for the role the ideal person will be driven to deliver high quality advice on project development/ management to both internal and external customers and have a positive attitude with a ‘can do’ approach even when under pressure to meet tight deadlines.”
Fun fact: High Peak near Buxton is home to the 200-hectare the Health and Safety Laboratory, run by the Health and Safety Executive, which investigates industrial accidents while providing health and safety training to businesses.
The laboratory was initially set up by Winston Churchill’s government to conduct research into coalmine explosions. It was apparently located in Buxton because quarrying was already present in the area and so there was little chance that an explosion would be associated with an accident.
From coalmines, the HSL has branched out - literally - to investigate the causes of railway accidents and even has its own train line that can be used for impact testing. The laboratory has also investigated accidents in high hazard installations.
Understandably, this complex work requires a mutli-disciplinary team and the HSL employs medical doctors, psychologists, explosives engineers, toxicologists, ergonomists, fire engineers, occupational hygienists, process safety engineers, microbiologists, mathematicians, material scientists, personal protective equipment experts and many more.
Among other investigations, it has looked into railway incidents at Potters Bar, Ladbroke Grove and Grayrigg, as well as incidents in high hazard installations like Buncefield and in other industries, such as amusement parks.
It’s become a vital instrument in understanding the causes of industrial accidents and, through research, training and consultancy, addressing them to save lives.
5. PLANNING SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES, WEST LANCASHIRE BOROUGH COUNCIL
Location: Ormskirk/home
The jobs: “Positions are available from planning officer to senior planning officer. We are looking for individuals with drive and enthusiasm who can manage a complex caseload with limited supervision, deal positively with customers, balance priorities and work to strict deadlines. Our ambitious service development plans mean that we have several roles available that provide excellent opportunities to develop your career and experience in development management, planning policy, strategic planning and enforcement.
“Our staff play a vital role in making sure we deliver the best quality and value for money services. We strive to be an organisation where our staff feel valued, inspired and empowered. You will therefore be a true team player, capable of working well with colleagues and customers alike to provide professional expertise in the range disciplines offered by these roles.”
Fun fact: Burscough in West Lancashire was once a centre for production of electric bread vans and milk floats. Victor Electrics, based in Burscough, was founded in the early 1920s by Outram’s Bakery to supply its own electric bread delivery vans. The firm, which had hitherto used steam lorries, petrol vans and horses and carts, wanted to use the electric technology but found costs of existing models prohibitive – so they built their own.
Their first electric van was finished in 1923. The vehicles sold for £150, were slightly larger than the Ford 1-ton vans which the bakery also ran and could carry 800 tin loaves. The vehicles looked like a conventional van, with the batteries placed under a bonnet at the front.
By 1929, Victor were making three models of bonnetted van. In 1931 they changed tack to introduce a vehicle for the dairy industry, with ‘forward control’ – ie, no bonnet – and a walk-through cab having no doors. In other words, the traditional milk float. This vehicle was designed to be driven while standing up, with the controls only enabled when the driver was standing on a spring-loaded floor button.
Through a number of mergers and acquisitions, Victor Electrics went on to produce battery electric road vehicles, platform trucks and even battery electric locomotives.
Only one Victor milk float is known to still exist, a 1955 model originally supplied to the Lavender Farm Daily in Hordle, Hampshire. It was rescued from a scrapyard by an enthusiast in Blandford, Dorset, and is now at The Transport Museum, Wythall, awaiting restoration.
Image credits | BortN66, Shutterstock; Djaphoto, Shutterstock; J Chizhe, Shutterstock; ShutterOK, Shutterstock; Nerthuz, Shutterstock
