The Friday Five 11.08.23
It's the Friday Five, our weekly round-up of the best town planning jobs advertised on Planner Jobs this week, along with some place-based facts to educate, amuse and entertain. Today, excellent opportunities for planners in Cardiff, Ebbsfleet, Essex, Wandsworth and Newcastle under Lyme. Plus the man behind the Daleks, the Fat Man of Maldon and the the tale of 'Britain's ugliest building' and its connection to Ebenezer Howard. Happy reading.
1. PRINCIPAL PLANNERS, DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT (x2), CARDIFF COUNCIL
Location: Cardiff, Wales
The job: "We are looking for two experienced, enthusiastic and motivated people to join our team as a principal planner, either in our strategic development management and placemaking or non-strategic development management teams. You will be part of a team of outstanding, and very friendly, officers who are committed to delivering the highest quality of development and making Cardiff a truly excellent city. Why not come and join us?
"You will manage a busy and varied caseload of applications, with the ‘strategic’ role having a particular emphasis on high profile residential, commercial and city centre applications with a significant design component. The 'non-strategic' team considers more than 2,000 applications a year, where your contribution can add significant value across the city.
"The main office base for the job is County Hall, a short walk from the beautiful Cardiff Bay, however we have embraced the benefits of hybrid home-office working. You will also be given the necessary management and team support, flexible working, peer review and skill sharing to enable you to successfully undertake your role and develop professionally."
Fun fact: Where would be without Cardiff-born Terence Jospeh Nation? We'd be rather less culturally rich, that's for sure – after all, Terry Nation invented the Daleks of Doctor Who fame. Yup, all that "We will exterminate!" business, all those jokes about how the best way to stop the Daleks taking over the world is just to put up lots of staircases – these can ultimately be traced back to the work of an impoverished Welsh novelist and screenwriter who only accepted the gig because he had a young family to support.
Nation also invented other iconic shows and characters which were essential viewing in the 1970s, including The Survivors and Blake's Seven. Before this, he'd worked on some of the most popular spy and crime thrillers of the 1960s, many of which are woven into the fabric of British pop culture, including The Avengers and The Saint. Later on he went to LA where he wrote scripts for McGyver (long overdue a revival), among others.
To UK pop culture geeks, though, Nation will always be indelibly associated with the long-coated Doctor, his sinister arch enemy Davros and the clunky robots that could somehow take over entire planets without any apparent means to travel over anything other than totally smooth terrain.
2. PLANNING COMMITTEE MEMBER, EBBSFLEET DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
Location: Ebbsfleet, Kent
The job: "Ebbsfleet Development Corporation (EDC) is leading the delivery of the first Garden City in 100 years – situated in north Kent. This is an exciting and rare opportunity to join the Ebbsfleet Development Corporation Planning Committee, helping to shape the future of Ebbsfleet and have a real impact on development in the area.
"Planning committee independent members provide support to the Corporation’s decision making on planning applications in the area. The planning committee independent members should have the competencies needed to operate effectively at planning committee. The committee requires a mix of skills and experience in areas relating to decision making but this does not necessarily need to be in the field of town planning. A knowledge of the local area and the issues, challenges and opportunities that it offers is advantageous. Planning committee independent members should understand the major strategic issues pertaining to the creation of the garden city and the overarching objectives of the Corporation within a town planning context, balanced against the needs of local communities, businesses and other stakeholders.
"All members of the planning committee will be required to undertake specific training and shall be mindful of the guidance set out in the Planning Advisory Service publication ‘Probity in planning for councillors and officers’ and the Ministry of Communities and Local Government publication ‘Openness and transparency on personal interests.’
"Whether you are a local resident or have experience in the regeneration, planning or development sector, we’d like to hear from you."
Fun fact: Ebbsfleet Garden City is named after the River Ebbsfleet, a tributary of the Thames Estuary that enters the estuary at Northfleet, opposite Tilbury Docks. Springhead, the source of the Ebbsfleet, forms one of the major quarters of the new Ebbsfleet Valley development. This particular site has a long, long history dating back to the pre-Roman era.
For example, it was the location of a Celtic settlement called Vagniacis which had strong ritual and spiritual associations, probably linked to it springs. after the Roman invasion it became a strategically important settlement along the route of Watling Street, where it crossed the Ebbsfleet Valley (Watling Street was one of the great Roman roads of ancient Britain and stretched from Dover to Wroxeter in Shropshire). Later on it was a stopping point for pilgrims travelling to Canterbury (a la Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales) and it was also the first site in the UK for commercial cultivation of watercress.
Now largely housing, it's a place of rich archaeological interest. Archaeologists working at the site ahead of the HS1 channel tunnel construction in the early 2000s work found more than 150,000 objects that ranged from 300,000 year old axe heads to a hoard of Medieval silver pennies. There were even suggestions of human sacrifices and a Saxon sword. There's a good account here.
3. DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT TEAM LEADER, ESSEX COUNTY COUNCIL
Location: Maldon, Essex
The job: "We are looking for a dynamic, confident and highly experienced team manager to provide effective technical leadership and operational support for our development management team.
"Reporting into the Head of development management, the post holder will be one of the principal advisors on development management and must therefore have significant experience at principal planner level or higher. This is a demanding role in a deadline driven service, so the right candidate must possess strong leadership qualities including being motivated, ambitious and inspiring others to succeed, as well highly effective organisational and coordination skills.
"With the head of development management, you will also play a pivotal role in the line management, professional development and pastoral support to the team of principals, seniors and planning officers, as well as graduates and assistants; effectively coordinating their workload relating to all types of planning applications and appeals, as well as supporting performance management. You will also have some involvement with our professionals in conservation and heritage, technical support land charges and street name and numbering to support the delivery of these services.
"You will be expected to have a positive outlook and a solution-finding approach to work whilst achieving targets and meeting deadlines. You will present applications to planning committees and represent the council at appeals. As such you should have a sound and thorough knowledge, with practical experience of all aspects of the planning and the development process."
Fun fact: In the King's Head Centre, just off Maldon High Street, is an unusual bronze relief depicting seven men inside a single coat. If you were to stumble across it without knowing the backstory, you might think it just some frivolous flight of fancy.
But the fact is that the relief commemorates an actual incident in which, in response to a bet, seven men wrapped themselves in the coat of just one man – Edward Bright, colloquially known as the Fat Man of Maldon.
Born in 1721, Bright was a grocer and – at 47.5 stone (301kg) – reputedly the fattest man in England. He lived on Maldon High street and is buried in the churchyard of All Saints' Church, in a special coffin. Bright died in November 1750, aged just 29.
Anyway, the story goes that on 1 December 1750, a month or so after his death, a war took place at the Black Bull Inn in the high street between two patrons. One asserted that the Bright's coat was large enough to have seven men stand inside it; the other disputed this claim. The dead man's coat was fetched, seven volunteers secured, and they did, indeed, fit inside the coat.
Bright's fame was such that, during his lifetime, his portrait was painted by a relatively well-known local artist David Ogborne who had built his reputation on painting provincial oddities, such as a winged fish, a six-legged calf and the Dunmow flitch of bacon ceremony (look it up). And of course, there's the bronze relief created by sculptor Catharni Stern who lived in the town in the 1970s.
4. PRINCIPAL POLICY AND INFORMATION PLANNER, RICHMOND AND WANDSWORTH COUNCILS
Location: Wandsworth, London
The job: "The principal policy and information planner will act as a professional expert, lead on the implementation and delivery of planning policy, including local plan making, as well as information and monitoring projects, providing definitive professional advice for the council, creating and applying planning policy and best practice and delivering successful planning outcomes.
"You will also be responsible for overseeing the work of senior planners and planners on projects and programmes, including supervising, coaching and monitoring their outputs and performance on projects and programmes to help them acquire the skills and knowledge so that they can become self-reliant in dealing with technical and people issues. You will work with the spatial planning and design team manager to ensure that corporate and national targets are met and exceeded.
"The role is based within the Richmond and Wandsworth shared staffing arrangement and will involve working on both boroughs’ local plans. You will:
- lead the work of, and oversee, a progressive team of planning professionals in providing definitive and professional advice for the two councils
- bring an excellent understanding of national, regional and local planning policy and associated legislative requirements and policy guidance
- create and apply planning policy and strategy and deliver successful planning outcomes
- help to deliver a high quality, robust and transparent spatial planning service
- ensure decision making within tight time frames and that the spatial and transport planning service is recognised as delivering an excellent planning service for all of our customers."
Fun fact: Woof! Among many things, Battersea in Wandsworth is fame for the Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, one of the UK's oldest and best known animal rescue centres. At any time the centre houses 240 abandoned dogs and 145 abandoned cats for adoption across its three centres; during the course of its history, its cared for 3.1 million dogs and cats.
It's become a byword for animal rescue, yet the shelter wasn't originally in Battersea at all. The centre was established in Holloway, in north London, in 1860 as The Temporary Home for Lost and Starving Dogs. It was founded by Mary Tealby, an animal welfare campaigner and RSPCA member.
Initially the home was in Tealby's scullery but the number of abandoned dogs quickly outgrew the space available. The RSPCA intervened, providing funding; Celebrity supporters such as Charles Dickens championed the cause (despite ridicule from some quarters) and by 1864, the shelter was handling 2,000 dogs a year.
The centre moved to Battersea in 1871 and started taking cats in 1883. It's grown and grown. During the Second Word War, the home took care of 145,000 dogs that would otherwise have been euthanased. In 1979 and 1999 respectively, it bought additional premises in Windsor and Kent.
It's featured prominently in television programme and continues to attract celebrity ambassadors today – among them, Dame Jacqueline Wilson, Amanda Holden and Tom Hardy – in support of what was described by Dickens in 1862 as an "extraordinary monument of the remarkable affection with which the English people regard the race of dogs". Amen to that.
(By the way, the dog in the photo is Hamish, canine companion to your humble author – and a rescue, of course. Please don't buy puppies; there are far too many lovely abandoned dogs in need of a good home).
5. SENIOR PLANNING POLICY OFFICER, NEWCASTLE-UNDER-LYME BOROUGH COUNCIL
Location: Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire
The job: "Are you interested in:
- enjoying the benefits of working in a small team, where your opinion will be highly valued and your enthusiasm, motivation and professionalism is important?
- enjoying the opportunity to play a key role in delivering an ambitious local plan programme? • Enjoying getting involved in a diverse mix of urban and rural issues?
- enjoying the benefits of working for an authority committed to your training and development?
"If this appeals to you and you are a dedicated, dynamic and enthusiastic town planner, eager to play a key role in influencing the exciting changes ahead in the borough, perhaps you’d like to come and work for us. Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council will soon be completing a Regulation 18 consultation on its local plan and is looking to take forward key pieces of evidence to support policy-development.
"A great full-time job opportunity has arisen for a senior planning officer to join the council's planning policy team. As a valuable member of our team, the post-holder will play a key role in developing our Local Plan including contributing significantly to the formulation of strategic policies and the spatial strategy as well as being the lead officer on a number of related projects. In return, you’ll enjoy a good work-life balance, flexible working arrangements and a supportive team that values your contributions."
Fun fact: And finally... in 1983 the budget supermarket Fine Fare opened a bold, multi-coloured outlet in Newcastle-under-Lyme that was branded by the town's own MP 'Britain's ugliest building'. It was, to be fair very much of its era, with a gaudily painted, hulking space age box above a multi-storey car park.
Even so, for local MP Liin Golding to describe it as "the worst thing built in the constituency for 800 years" and call, in Parliament, for a national award for the worst building, seems a bit extreme. Besides, the building allegedly had its uses – it's said that pilots used it as a navigational aid en route to Manchester Airport.
No longer trading, Fine Fare was kind of the Asda, Aldi or Lidl of its day, offering budget priced own brand fare that enabled it to compete with the retail giants Tesco and Sainsburys. Their Yellow Pack range was the first supermarket own brand range to appear in the UK. Nowadays, of course, it's the norm. It was also the first UK supermarket to sell organic food, in 1983.
Planning fans may wish to note that Fine Fare was founded in 1951 as an offshoot of Welwyn Department Store which in turn was owned by – yup – Ebenezer Howard, via his Howardsgate Holdings company. By 1962, it had more than 200 shops. The company that owned Fine fare was bought by Somerfield in 1986 and all the supermarkets were subsequently rebranded as Gateway Foods.
Though the supermarket disappeared in time, the building itself remained. Newcastle-under-Lyme's former Fine Fare is now a Vue Cinema. It's lost its dramatic paint job, though. Shame.
Image credits | iStock; iStock; Chris Dorney, Shutterstock; Simon Percival; iStock
