The Friday Five 22.07.22
It’s the Friday Five – this week compiled by our guest writers Lily Cowper and Niamh Hayes, who are doing work experience with us. Great job, Lily and Niamh!
1. PLANNING MANAGER, PEEL PORTS
Location: Liverpool
The job: “The planning manager role, within the group planning department, will work alongside the group planning director in managing a diverse caseload of planning related activities and will collaborate with the port directors and property and project teams in pursuance of the delivery of the strategic business initiatives across the Peel Ports Group operational clusters and sites.
“Your responsibilities could include:
- Manage and support the submission of permitted development projects
- Manage all aspects of the planning process for port related schemes
- Lead and manage the preparation of port master plans
- Lead and manage in the submission of written responses to national and local planning consultations
- Support Port Directors in all regulatory planning elements of their business.
“If you want to join a thriving and ambitious place to work, where you will be able to broaden your knowledge and progress in your career, a future with Peel Ports could be for you.”
Fun fact: Liverpool was the port of registry for the infamous RMS Titanic ocean liner. The Titanic was built in Belfast, Ireland, from 1909, before being transported to Southampton for her maiden voyage, after extensive checks regarding her seaworthiness. Although Titanic never actually docked in her home city of Liverpool, she had strong ties to it, with the city’s name on her stern in gold.
Titanic’s managing company, the White Star Line, had its headquarters in Liverpool, in Albion House, the red-brick grade II listed building which is now a Titanic-themed hotel on The Strand. There, Titanic was born and took shape, one of three sister ships built to challenge a rival company – in this instance, size did matter.
The Olympic, the Titanic, and the Britannic were all made to be the largest, most luxurious ships of their time. Built spanning 1909-1911, the Titanic was slightly heavier than the Olympic, owing to changes made after the Olympic’s maiden voyage. The Britannic, made 1911-1914, just barely beat the Titanic for weight, but never existed at the same time as the ill-fated boat. The Britannic also sank shortly into her career, damaged by an Imperial German Navy mine in 1916. She sank in the span of 55 minutes, three times faster than Titanic’s time of 2 hours 40 minutes.
The Titanic was also home to Jenny, the ship’s cat. In early April, Jenny gave birth to a litter of kittens. As the legend of Titanic’s cat goes, in Southampton Jenny was seen by an Irish stoker by the name of Joseph Mulholland to carry her kittens off the boat and abandon the ship herself. Taking this as a bad omen, Joseph too decided to remain in England. A few days later, their instincts were morbidly proved correct.
2. SENIOR PLANNING OFFICER - DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT, HINCKLEY AND BOSWORTH DISTRICT COUNCIL
Location: Hinckley, Leicestershire
The job: “Hinckley and Bosworth is a fantastic environment for ambitious professional planners to gain a breadth of experience across a multitude of projects, ranging from regeneration to conservation, rural to urban, and residential to employment and major infrastructure projects. With the local plan proceeding to submission in 2023 and large-scale developments underway, this is a great time to join a busy, thriving team.
“The post holder would be involved in some of our large scale residential and commercial applications which would be ideal for someone wanting to have diverse and interesting caseloads. You’ll be key to leading the delivery of significant placemaking developments, such as the sustainable urban extensions at Barwell and Earl Shilton, which are expected to deliver over 4,000 new homes and key community infrastructure.”
“You will be expected to:
- Demonstrate your judgement and initiative
- Have excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Have a desire to develop your experience of delivering high quality development outcomes
- Have the ability to work as part of a team, using your own initiative to problem solve and effectively manage your case work.”
Fun fact: Twycross Zoo is located in the district of Hinckley and Bosworth and home to the largest collection of monkeys and apes in the western world. The zoo is renowned as a specialist primate centre, accommodating all four types of great apes, including the UK’s only group of bonobo – which are thought to be capable of altruism, compassion, empathy, kindness, patience and sensitivity.
The zoo has become known for breeding primates and recorded the first UK births for a plethora of different species including the siamang, agile gibbon (so called because of their amazing ability to use their long arms to swing through trees) and woolly monkey.
Molly Badham, co-founder of Twycross Zoo, provided chimpanzees for PG Tips tea adverts and one of the zoo’s chimpanzees even appeared in a Hammer Horror production. To the zoo’s current management's contempt, chimpanzees were dressed up in clothes and made to act like humans, even ride bikes.
Nowadays, Twycross takes a more considerate attitude towards the animals in its care. Its website states that “our chimpanzees are given the space and freedom to live as close to a wild situation as possible”.
3. ASSISTANT DEVELOPMENT MANAGER - ENFORCEMENT, CIL & SPECIALISTS, RUNNYMEDE BOROUGH COUNCIL
Location: Addlestone, Surrey
The job: “It is an excellent time to join Runnymede with a recently adopted local plan which provides significant opportunities to work on large and interesting projects. Our aim is to deliver growth in a way that respects and maintains the character of Runnymede and delivers infrastructure and services to support it.
“The assistant development manager is a key role in the service. The primary function of the job is to manage the council’s enforcement, CIL and specialists team and to assist the corporate head of development management and building control and the development manager in the delivery of the wider service.
“We’re looking for an experienced planning professional who has the knowledge and interest to carry out this key specialist role. The ideal candidate would have practical experience of complex enforcement and some management or supervision experience, though we are keen to hear from candidates with a wide range of planning experience. In particular we need someone with strong communication and negotiation skills and a customer focused approach.”
Fun fact: Runnymede has one very important claim to fame: it was the place of the signing of the Magna Carta. Signed on the 15th June 1215, the Magna Carta is arguably the most important piece of legislation in British history. It was first drafted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Stephen Langton in order to appease a band of rebel barons protesting against the rule of King John.
The salient points of the Magna Carta ensured that the monarch could not exploit or abuse their power, and also established limits on the previously unhampered powers of royalty by establishing the law as a power in and of itself. This was revised by every following ruler, until the fledgling Parliament passed new laws that effectively registered the Magna Carta obsolete.
Although the political myth alludes to the Magna Carta being a protection of ancient personal liberties, it did not refer to the rights of ordinary people, instead concerning itself only with the relationship between the monarch and the barons.
Iconic in British history though it is, the Magna Carta also has an important role in the early American colonists in the Thirteen Colonies, and even in the formation of the United States Constitution, even though almost all of its original content was repealed. In fact, only three of the 63 ‘clauses’ remain in effect in England and Wales – clauses 1, 9, and 29.
4. PRINCIPAL PLANNING OFFICER, TELFORD AND WREKIN COUNCIL
Location: Wellington, Shropshire
The job: “Working in our highly motivated and professional planning team, our principal planning officers lead on a wide variety of development control matters delivering both statutory obligations within the borough as well as the opportunity to deliver development donsultancy services across the region.”
“To carry out the professional duties of a principal planning officer:
- To be responsible for a full range of development control matters, including determination of planning applications under delegated powers
- To lead and manage multi-disciplinary project teams dealing with all planning control matters for strategic developments and enquiries leading a caseload of major applications, and related appeals and developer enquiries
- To input to the wider professional work of the planning service.”
Fun fact: in 1244, King Henry III signed Wellington’s first market charter. It was among the earliest awarded to a Shropshire town and, as a result, Wellington still boasts one of the biggest and busiest markets in the county eight centuries later. To mark the occasion, the town holds a Charter Day each year on the first Saturday of March.
Locals truly get into the spirit by wearing costumes during the annual re-enactment of the 12th-century event where the charter is delivered by the ‘King’s messenger’ on horseback. There are morris dancing performances throughout the day, as well as the Great Scone Contest at the Pheasant Inn. This traditional baking competition requires contestants to drop off six of their best home-made scones at the pub, where a team of judges gets stuck in before announcing the winner (over a pint, presumably).
Charter Day is enormously popular and hundreds of people get involved every year to celebrate the momentous event.
5. HEAD OF TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING UNIT, DEPARTMENT FOR TRANSPORT
Location: Birmingham, Leeds, London
The job: “The Department for Transport (DfT) works with our agencies and partners to support the transport network that helps the UK’s businesses and gets people and goods travelling around the country. We have an ambitious programme for investment in transport infrastructure across the country to keep the UK on the move, to level up our regions, decarbonise the way we travel and recover from the recent pandemic.
“We are looking for someone with excellent communication skills, who is able to simplify complex information and present persuasively at senior levels, as well as being an excellent decision-maker with the ability to see the strategic connections between issues and recommend the right decisions in a political environment.
“Your expertise includes analysing complex reports to ensure they are legal and policy-compliant, as well as dealing with legislation, such as planning, transport, and environmental law.
“Would you like the opportunity to work on projects of national significance, within a high profile area? If so, we would love to hear from you!”
Fun fact: The Department for Transport was established on the 29th May, 2002, with its headquarters in London. Other famous events occurring on this day include:
Edmund Hillary, of New Zealand, and Tenzing Norgay, of Nepal, become the first people ever to reach the summit of Mount Everest, in 1953. Because of the remote location and lack of technology, the rest of the world didn’t actually learn of their triumph until 2nd June.
NASA’s Discovery Space Shuttle docked for the first time at the International Space Station, in 1999. The Discovery Space Shuttle is perhaps NASA’s most successful spacecraft, with accomplishments like the deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope and being the most-flown shuttle in the NASA fleet.
In France, 2003, Vince Autin and Bruno Boileau became the first gay partners to marry. The ceremony took place in Montpelier and had very tight security as the new laws regarding gay marriage were controversial and had sparked violent protests.
Last but not least…
1968: Manchester United won the European Cup! The club handily beat their Portuguese opponents, Benfica, 4-1 to take the European Cup for England for the very first time. The iconic line-up included George Best, who was later named the European Footballer of the Year.
Image credits | Anton Ivanov, Shutterstock; Firgint, Shutterstock; David Smart, Shutterstock; Dave Denby Photography, Shutterstock; Vixit, Shutterstock
