The Friday Five 15.09.23
It's the Friday Five, our weekly collection (or is that collation?) of five of the best town planning jobs advertised on Planner Jobs. This week, opportunities in Winchester, Lewes, Bridgend, Birmingham and Bristol. Plus, the tale of the Winchester Hoard, the Lewes resident who inspired the American Revolution and creation of a model village in Birmingham by philanthropically minded business owners.
1. PRINCIPAL SPATIAL PLANNER, HAMPSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL
Location: Winchester, Hants/ Hybrid
The job: "The spatial planning team within the strategic Hampshire 2050 directorate is seeking someone to join our ambitious team of planners and data specialists. You will have a good understanding of the planning system and the implementation of policy and be able to positively influence teams across the council.
"We are looking for a highly motivated individual with experience working within the field of planning (for example, development management, planning policy, urban design, development delivery). A strategic thinker, you will have effective collaboration skills able to work across the council and with colleagues in our boroughs and districts.
"You will apply the latest thinking on placemaking and sustainability to help us develop policies, processes and strategies. You will be involved in collating evidence and responding to consultations related to a range of planning and environmental issues."
Fun fact: There have been numerous hoards of buried treasure discovered in the UK; even so, the Winchester Hoard is somewhat unusual. The collection of gold jewellery found in a field by retired florist and amateur metal detectorist Kevin Halls, was dated to 75-25 BCE (or BC if you prefer). So? Well, this was Celtic Britain, but the items were made using Roman manufacturing techniques.
Yet, they’re reminiscent of Celtic Iron Age torques and were considered by one expert to be too ‘gaudy’ to have been worn by any self-respecting Roman, so the assumption is that they were some kind of diplomatic gift from Rome to a Celtic leader in Britain, perhaps to ease the way for an eventual invasion.
The hoard consists of two sets of jewellery with a very high gold content, weighing more than a kilogram. Each set of jewellery consists of a torque, two brooches and a bracelet. At the time of discovery, they were valued at £350,000 and are now on display in the British Museum.
It’s not clear why they were buried. Hoards are typically associated with burials of important figures, offerings at places with significant religious associations or concealment of family treasure during times of war – the idea being that the owner will return at some point and dig it up again. The Winchester hoard has no obvious link with any of these. It’s thought it may have been a personal ‘votive offering’ to gain the favour of a god. At the time the hoard was buried, the Winchester area was associated with the British Belgae tribe, a loose confederation of tribes based mainly in Northern Gaul (France). Their name can be loosely translated as ‘the people who swell with battle fury’. Hence, perhaps, a diplomatic gift rather than a declaration of war...
2. DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT LEAD, SOUTH DOWNS NATIONAL PARK AUTHORITY
Location: Lewes, East Sussex
The job: "This development management role is based in Lewes in East Sussex focusing on providing support and guidance to the Lewes District Council planning team who work jointly with the South Downs National Park Authority across this eastern area of the national park.
"The attractive county town of Lewes lies within the eastern part of the South Downs National Park which stretches from Winchester in the west to Eastbourne in the east, making it the third largest national park in England. By virtue of the size of the park and its resident population (about 120,000), there are a number of large settlements within its boundaries, including Lewes itself and Petersfield, and this environment affords the opportunity for a wide ranging scope of work.
"As one of the largest planning authorities in England with over 5,000 applications a year, we offer a unique and fulfilling environment to pursue your career in quite simply some of the most beautiful locations in the south of England. The successful candidate would carry a diverse and interesting caseload of urban and rural planning work, including major applications and appeals."
Fun fact: Thomas Paine, a guiding light of the American Revolution and a founding father of the United States was, in fact, an Englishman whose career as a political agitator began while living above a tobacconist in Lewes in the early 1770s.
Born in Norfolk in 1736, Paine had been a privateer (a pirate, basically), a corset-maker, a tax collector, a school teacher and a tobacconist while developing the radical, revolutionary political convictions (and Lewes had a reputation for this) that prompted him to venture to the Americas in 1774.
Here he found his true calling, as a journalist, pamphleteer, political theorist and agitator. Paine was a Republican, a democrat, rationalist and a humanitarian whose ideas would not be remotely out of place in the modern world. His clear, direct style and ability to express complex ideas in memorable everyday language meant that his political writings were very widely read and became incredibly influential in building an appetite for revolution against British colonial rule and a fervour for democracy based on more than simply property ownership.
Beyond the American Revolution itself, it’s thought he was involved in the drafting the Declaration of Independence. But he was a controversial figure who made enemies and he returned to Britain, where he became engrossed in the French Revolution (making enemies in Britain, which sought his arrest and trial). Finally, he landed up in America again, where he died in 1809. By this point he was a shunned figure and just six people attended his funeral.
Yet his works have been profoundly influential. These, particularly The Rights of Man and The Age of Reason, have exerted considerable sway over later radical, liberal and democratic political movements, thinkers, writers, politicians, and even inventors, including Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison, Bertrand Russell and Christopher Hitchens.
3. PRINCIPAL PLANNING OFFICER – STRATEGIC TRANSPORTATION, BRIDGEND COUNTY BOROUGH COUNCIL
Location: Bridgend (Pen-y-bont ar Ogwr)/ Hybrid
The job: "This is a wide-ranging and multi-disciplinary role for which the successful candidate will be involved in development and analysis of transport policy and leading the active travel programme.
"You must have a good all-round knowledge of UK transport policy, particularly in the Wales context, and also the workings of local government in Wales. The candidate will have experience in the preparation of transport grant bids, project briefs and have project management capabilities to progress active travel and strategic transport schemes from conception to completion.
"Within this role you will liaise with the Welsh Government, Transport for Wales, other local authorities. On top of this there is opportunity to provide technical input to regional strategy as part of the forthcoming regional transport plan and strategic development plan.
"The Replacement Bridgend Local Development Plan, due to be adopted in early 2024, will bring forward a number of large-scale, strategic housing development sites and your input will be crucial to developing the appropriate active travel and highway infrastructure to support these schemes as part of the master planning strategy. As such there will be further opportunity to work within dedicated project development teams and within the town and country planning environment."
Fun fact: In March 1945, Island Farm on the outskirts of Bridgend became the scene of the biggest escape attempt by German POWs during the Second World War. At least 70 (and as many as 84) men escaped via a 9-metre (30 foot) tunnel they had dug from Hut Nine beyond the camp’s perimeter fence. Accounts are disputed, but it’s thought that all of the escapees were captured and retuned to their imprisonment.
Echoing scenes from the classic war film The Great Escape, the German escapees dug their tunnel using empty tin cans, meat tins and knives from the canteen. They tapped into the camp’s electricity supply to rig up electric lighting and created ventilation shafts using condensed milk tins. The heart clay soil itself was put into kit bags or rolled into balls and dropped behind a false wall in one of the huts.
The escapees themselves were equipped with a map, a homemade compass, food and false identity papers. Incredibly, some of the escapees made it as far as Birmingham and Southampton before being recaptured. One researcher argues that three were never caught – but the authorities have never confirmed this.
The camp itself had originally been a hostel camp for women working at a nearby munitions factory and then for American soldiers awaiting D-Day. Post-D-Day it became a POW camp and from November 1944 was used exclusively for German officers. Within weeks of the escape, all 1,600 prisoners were transferred elsewhere and the camp was designated Special Camp Eleven and a place of internment for senior German officers only who were awaiting trial at Nuremberg. They included some of Hitler’s closest advisers.
Archaeological investigation in 2016 found the tunnel to still be in relatively good condition, with much of its wooden support shoring intact. Hut Nine is still standing.
4. PRINCIPAL PLANNING AND LAND USE OFFICER, WEST MIDLANDS COMBINED AUTHORITY
Location: Birmingham, West Mids/ Hybrid
The job: "Our policy and strategy team have a brand-new role for a principal planning and land use officer to work closely with local authorities, to ensure that new development and regeneration takes place in the right places and are designed in a way that supports and prioritises inclusive, sustainable travel behaviours, as set in the West Midlands Local Transport Plan. You will be the voice for the West Midlands Combined Authority, making sure that planning activity takes into consideration land use and transport, ensuring that new developments are close to transport networks.
"Using your technical expertise, you will work in partnership with local authorities to improve transport accessibility to new development including major sites, across the region. You will be involved in funding negotiations, so we need someone who is a strong influencer, is able to negotiate effectively and has a comprehensive understanding of broader planning policies. This is a varied role where you will be part of an established team of 7 and engage in our ambitious projects such as the Local Transport Plan and the City Region Sustainable Transport settlements at a time when the region is at the forefront of English devolution."
Fun fact: Bournville in Birmingham is a ‘model’ village, one of numerous built by philanthropical 19th and 20th-century industrialists to provide a good quality of life for employees. In this case, the founders were the Cadburys, the Quaker family that manufactured chocolate in a factory just outside Birmingham.
The factory site was chosen in 1879 for the space it afforded for expansion and for its proximity to railway and canal networks. The Cadbury brothers who ran the business named it Bournville, after the River Bourn, which ran through it.
In 1893, George Cadbury bought a nearby site and began the planning and construction of the model village that would become modern Bournville. His thinking was that it would “alleviate the evils of modern, more cramped living conditions”. Homes were built in an Arts and Crafts style, with generous gardens and modern interiors and a corner for health and fitness led to extensive play and recreations areas, sports pitches, bowling greens, a fishing lake, and outdoor lido – with all facilities free to employees and residents.
Significantly, being Quakers, the Cadburys stipulated that there were to be no pubs on the estate – to this day the only place to buy a drink is in the licensed bar of the sports pavilion. Further development was handed over to an independent trust. Schools, hospitals, museums, public baths and reading rooms followed.
The trust continues to exert a strong influence over the development of Bournville, which now numbers 7,800 homes over four square kilometres of land, with 0.4 square kilometres of open space. Cadburys continues to be one of Birmingham's major employers and continues to make chocolate. Bournville itself provided a template for other model villages around the UK.
5. PRINCIPAL PLANNER, DALCOUR MACLAREN, BRISTOL
Location: Rudgeway, near Bristol
The job: "Dalcour Maclaren is an innovative and highly dynamic multi-disciplinary consultancy working on huge range of exciting and diverse projects for a growing client base within utilities and infrastructure - think HS2, offshore wind farms and nuclear energy. We are immensely proud to be working on some of the largest infrastructure projects taking place across the UK (and beyond!) which are instrumental in shaping the future of our planet.
"Our environmental and planning team is looking for an experienced principal planner to bolster the existing planning expertise in this busy and exciting part of the business which is continuing to grow. As principal planner, you will be managing and contributing to a variety of projects, including new capital schemes, property portfolio development appraisals and securing planning consents across all utilities and infrastructure sectors.
"You will lead or manage a small/sub team in providing support, experience and advice on environmental and planning considerations and requirements across a variety of sites and schemes with varying levels of sensitivity, delivering on a range of services and managing relatively complex projects to a consistently high standard with a view to meet and exceed client objectives."
Fun fact: The Almondsbury Interchange, close to the Dalcour Maclaren office in Ridgeway, is one of the UK's largest stack interchanges. You what?
A stack interchange is a multi-level motorway interchange. The Almondsbury one has four levels and was built where the M4 and M5 meet, ostensibly to enable motorists to get on and off the motorway from the A38 between Bristol and Gloucester. But these slips roads intertwined with the main slip roads for both motorways, creating a complex pattern of lanes criss-crossing one another and requiring drivers to make multiple lane changes.
At the time of its opening in 1966, the Almondsbury interchange was the UK's only four-level interchange and it was the most complex junction on the motorway network. Stack interchanges are designed to create a freer flow of traffic where major roads meet, but the Almondsbury Interchange is afflicted with congestion during rush hours and traffic can crawl to a near halt during the summer holiday season. Currently, it’s part of a ‘managed motorway project’ to control traffic flow on the approach to the interchange. And it has six emergency refuges for motorists who get into trouble.
The first stack interchange was – inevitably – built in the United States, in Los Angeles, and the USA continues to be the home of these highway phenomena. Texas, for example, has multiple five-level stacks and two six-level stacks, in Dallas and Lewisville.
Image credits | iStock; Shutterstock (barbed wire)
