The Friday Five 1.12.23
It's the Friday Five, our weekly collation of five of the best jobs advertised on Planner Jobs this week. Plus our weekly curation of five fascinating place-based facts. This week, opportunities in King's Lynn, Bristol/Cardiff, the Peak District, Hull and Banbury. Plus curious tales that include a Venn diagram that includes the inventor of Venn diagrams, a plethora of sphagnums and the popularity of Britain's largest village (allegedly). Read on.
1. PRINCIPAL PLANNER (TEAM LEADER) – DEVELOPMENT CONTROL, BOROUGH COUNCIL OF KING'S LYNN AND WEST NORFOLK
Location: King's Lynn, Norfolk
The job: "We have a great opportunity for you to join us as one of two principal planners in development control. You'll lead a team covering the growing market towns of King’s Lynn, Downham Market and Hunstanton, the Norfolk Coast, the Fens and areas bordering the Brecks. This is a unique opportunity to work in a beautiful part of the country.
"We're a large borough with diverse landscapes, giving you the opportunity to be involved with rural issues, urban regeneration and coastal planning, as well as major developments proposed within the main towns of King’s Lynn, Downham Market and Hunstanton. West Norfolk provides a beautiful environment in which to live and work with the council offices based in King’s Lynn, a medieval town and port with an outstanding conservation area."
Fun fact: You’d be forgiven for thinking all things USA when bringing to mind Campbell’s, the soup-making company with its instantly recognisable red-and-white can design and Andy Warhol pop art connections.
But for a large part of the 20th century, King’s Lynn was a major producer of the company’s product. The town became known for its food canning operations, with the Campbell’s soup factory opening in 1959.
This was the first major Campbell's plant to be constructed outside of America, and considered state-of-the-art when opened. Staff were given their own uniforms, laundry services, locker rooms, canteen and medical department.
At its peak in the early 1990s it employed over 700 people. Alas, the factory closed in 2007 and demolished in 2012 to make way for a new business park.
Such was the local impact of the facility that the tower built alongside it, once the tallest building in King's Lynn, was even the subject of a competition for the honour of triggering its demolition.
2. PLANNER/SENIOR PLANNER, TURLEY
Location: Bristol/Cardiff
The job: "We're looking for a talented and ambitious planner/senior planner to work on and lead stretching and prestigious projects as part of our established and growing South West and Wales team, based in either our Bristol or Cardiff offices.
"This is an exciting opportunity to further your career within a vibrant and progressive consultancy, in a friendly team environment where you will be given the encouragement and tools to grow and progress.
"In this role you will:
- Work on high-profile planning projects across various sectors, including energy and infrastructure, regeneration, commercial and residential
- Lead on local projects and proactively support delivery on more major projects.
- Have defined responsibility and client contact
- Have the opportunity to work on projects across Wales and England
- Be supported to develop your technical skills and grow your presence in our local markets."
Fun fact: This job links to both Cardiff and Bristol, with the fun fact here being the routine comparisons made between the two near neighbours.
It’s understandable given the short distance between the two, and given the dynamism of both these relatively small cities.
Back in 2015, the then director of Bristol’s Watershed creativity centre, Dick Penny, argued that “Bristol and Cardiff have many things in common. A few years ago I listened to a presentation about city regions in Europe. One example was Copenhagen-Malmo, two cities in different countries, linked by a bridge. So the challenge here is what can Bristol and Cardiff do together that benefits us both?”
It’s a healthy, friendly rivalry between the cities, and the metrics don’t suggest fundamental differences. For example, Bristol may have more Stock Market listed companies and a larger professional advisory sector, but other research has Cardiff as the fastest growing city in the UK in terms of job creation in the financial and professional services sectors. So there.
Anyway, if Cardiff is indeed still playing catch-up it’s worth bearing in mind that the Welsh capital Cardiff has only been a city for just over a century while Bristol has clocked up more than six centuries as a major international trading centre. From where we’re sitting in London, both are beautiful cities with much to recommend them.
3. DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT AND ENFORCEMENT AREA TEAM MANAGER, PEAK DISTRICT NATIONAL PARK AUTHORITY
Location: Bakewell, Derbyshire/Hybrid
The job: "The Peak District National Park Authority protects, enhances and shares the natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage of the Peak District. We also support the economic and social wellbeing of the communities in which we work.
"As the area team manager, you will be responsible for overseeing a dedicated team of staff who handle development management and monitoring and enforcement activities within the South Area of the national park.
"You'll contribute significantly to shaping the future of the Peak District and ensuring sustainable development and preservation of its unique character. Specifically, you will:
- Lead and manage a team of planning professionals, providing guidance, support and mentoring to ensure high productivity and professional growth
- Coordinate and oversee all development management and enforcement activities in the South Area.
- Collaborate closely with colleagues and stakeholders to ensure consistent application of the authority’s planning policies
- Provide expert advice and guidance on planning matters to both internal and external parties
- Stay up-to-date with relevant legislation, policies, and industry trends."
Fun fact: Parts of the Peak District National Park are home to one of the UK's most valuable, but most threatened habitats: peat bog. It's estimated that in the last 100 years, 94 per cent of top the UK's peat bogs have been lost, largely to cutting for use as fuel and garden compost. Some has also been destroyed by burning, drainage, pollution, afforestation and farming.
But why does this matter? Quite simply, peat bogs serves a variety of ecosystem services, as well as providing precious habitat for a large number of species, many of them rare. For example, peat holds water, slowing its flow to areas where it could cause flooding. Their loss increases the chances of flooding but also wildfires which can scar landscapes.
Perhaps more significantly, peat is a massive CO2 reservoir. Even though peat occupies 12 per cent of the UK's land area, it holds more than half of the nation's current carbon storage - about 5.5 billion tonnes. In fact, peatlands store twice as much carbon globally as all of the world's forests combined, even though they occupy just 3 per cent of the Earth's land area.
And they are incredibly rich habitats. The UK's peat bogs hold more than 380 species of sphagnum moss, numerous carnivorous plants and provides habitat for a wide range of insects and birds, including the large heath butterfly, the bog bush cricket and the mire pill beetle, black grouse, golden plovers, dunlins and greenshanks. They also provide excellent hunting grounds for raptors such as golden eagles and harriers.
In the Peak District, the peat bogs hold 20 million tonnes of carbon, but 80 per cent of the parks' peat moors are damaged (a good deal from industrial pollution). The Moors for the Future project based in Edale is leading efforts to repair and restore the lost and damaged peat bogs so that these valuable landscapes continue to provide ecosystem services and wildlife habitat for years to come.
4. PRINCIPAL PLANNING OFFICER/POLICY PLANNER, HULL CITY COUNCIL
Location: Hull, East Yorkshire
The job: "Two fixed term posts (two years) are available, offering exciting opportunities to be involved in a wide range of planning activities associated with the review and update of the Hull Local Plan.
Principal planning officer (local plans)
"In this role you will lead on a range of planning policy matters which are required to review and update the Hull Local Plan and to likewise play a key role in taking the plan through the formal plan making and consultation stages resulting in the adoption of the plan.
Policy planner (local plans)
"In this role you will be involved in survey, research, and analytical tasks across all planning issues, such as monitoring the effectiveness of the local plan, area plans and any other issues which assist to inform policy formulation. You will help to recommend choices and solutions on wide ranging matters affecting the long-term future of the city."
Fun fact: If you were to create a Venn diagram of famous mathematicians and famous people from Hull, it's likely that just one person would occupy the overlapping space: John Venn, the man who invented the Venn diagram.
Born in 1834 into a strict evangelical family, Venn actually rejected maths after studying it at Cambridge University because he found the syllabus too narrow to satisfy his inquisitiveness. Instead, after being ordained as an Anglican priest, he became a lecturer in moral science, teaching political economy, philosophy, probability theory and logic.
He devised the Venn diagram in 1880 as a teaching aid - though it was not exactly a new idea, which he clearly acknowledged - and it's this that has ensured his name has lasted. Nevertheless, there was a lot more to John Venn than diagrams and books on logic alone.
For example, he once built a machine that bowled a cricket ball and successfully bowled out Australia's top batsmen four times consecutively. He was a passionate gardener who won prized for his roses. And he was a prominent supporter of votes for women. Oh, and he resigned from the clergy in 1883, having concluded that Anglicanism was incompatible with his philosophical beliefs.
Now try to make sense of all of that with a Venn diagram...
5.PRINCIPAL PLANNING POLICY OFFICER (X2), CHERWELL DISTRICT COUNCIL
Location: Banbury, Oxfordshire
The job: "We're busy planning office in North Oxfordshire dealing with a huge range of developments including a garden town, the expansion of Oxford, a new settlement on a Cold War site, nationally significant infrastructure projects and numerous urban extensions. We're also producing a new local plan.
As such, we need two new principal planning policy officers to help push forward our local plan review and other planning policy work.
"With the support of our planning policy, conservation and design manager and a planning policy team leader, you'll work a close-knit team to deliver the plan, engaging with other services, elected members, communities, developers and neighbouring authorities.
"You'll need the skills, drive and commitment to supervise and deal with a complex and varied planning policy workload. You should also be proactive, delivery focused, innovative and highly adept in group working and problem solving."
Fun fact: Kidlington, in Cherwell district, is notable for two reasons in particular:
1. Its claim to be the largest village in England, if not Europe
2. The unusually high number of Chinese tourists that visit the village.
To begin with, Kidlington is classed as a village even though it has a population above 13,000 and more than 50 shops, banks and building societies, numerous pubs, cafes and restaurants, a handful or primary schools and a secondary school. Despite it obviously being much larger and more developed than what we would typically think of a sea. Village, its residents make it a point of honour to resists reclassification to a town.
As for the Chinese tourists, it was notes that cochlea's were being dropped off in the village and nobody could understand why, beyond some of the visitors saying they wanted to see the 'true' Britain they had in mind when they visited. But this hardly explained why it should be Kidlington rather than any number of suspiciously large villages around the UK.
That is until the BBC conducted an investigation which found that Chinese tour operators were charging an additional $68 for Chinese language tours of nearby Blenheim Palace (as opposed to the standard £25 public tours of the palace). Those who didn't fancy the extra cost were dropped in Kidlington – because out was far enough away from Blenheim Palace that people would walk there.
Image credits | Calimedia, Shutterstock; Krzych 34, Shutterstock; Sergio Provilskyi, iStock; Whiteway, iStock; SevenMaps, Shutterstock
