The Friday Five 24.11.23
It's The Friday Five, our weekly selection of five of the best town planning jobs advertised on Planner Jobs this week – plus the usual melée of artfully curated place-based facts to inform, educate, entertain and quite possibly annoy.
This week, tip-top planning jobs in Trowbridge, Wilts; St Helens, Merseyside; Cambourne, Cambs; Rickmansworth, Herts; and Addlestone, Surrey. Plus, the tale of the man who killed the silent movie. Tuck in!
1. PLANNING OFFICER, WILTSHIRE COUNCIL
Location: Trowbridge, Wiltshire
The job: "Our planning policy team is part of one of the country’s largest local planning authorities, and we are driving the regeneration and sustainable development of locations throughout the county.
"As a planning officer, you'll be involved in a wide range of projects, including the development of the Wiltshire Local Plan, the Gypsy and Traveller Development Plan and Minerals and Waste Plans which are also being progressed. In addition, there will be opportunities to engage with policy monitoring, neighbourhood planning and provide planning policy input into the wider work of the Place Directorate."
Fun fact: Trowbridge is sometimes called ‘the Manchester of the South’ because of its association with the cotton and textiles industry – and definitely not because of any resemblance to Manchester’s football teams: The Planner’s editor Martin Read informs us that Trowbridge Town FC were “regularly trounced” by his beloved Wealdstone during their time in the National League.
Trowbridge has a curious connection to North Korea: between 1824 and 2000 the town was home to brewers Ushers of Trowbridge, until the brewery equipment was sold for £1.5 million to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
The equipment now belongs to the state-owned Taedonggang Brewing Company – whose fare was described by the BBC’s Korea correspondent Steven Evans in a 2016 review as “an OK beer, a bit bland to my palate more used to magnificent British bitter – a bit too much like ghastly, dishwater, mass-produced American beer, in my opinion”.
Finally some common ground, perhaps – could a mutual love of “ghastly” beer usher in a period of détente between the US and North Korea?
2. PLANNING OFFICER, POLICY (12 MONTH CONTRACT), ST HELENS BOROUGH COUNCIL
Location: St Helens, Merseyside/Home
The job: "St Helens Borough Council plays a key role in the Liverpool City Region and wider area, and has an acknowledged reputation as providing excellent planning services. We're dealing with an exciting range of planning challenges, balancing needs for major new development against the protection of green spaces and other environmental assets. We've recently adopted our new local plan.
"We're looking for a planning officer (policy) to cover maternity leave for one year. You will play a key role - working with other team members, undertaking a wide range of planning policy work. This will include research, drafting and refining policies, and monitoring their effectiveness over time, while working collaboratively with colleagues and liaising with members of the public. A key priority in the short term will be supporting the preparation of a number of supplementary planning documents and the implementation of the new local plan."
Fun fact: Talkies. It's probably meaningless now, but just under a century ago it distinguished silent films from those with recorded soundtracks: ‘talkies’. This was a new practice, with the first soundtracked film being the John Barrymore film Don Juan in 1926 – but this was just an orchestral score. The first actual talkie, a movie that completely revolutionised cinema, was 1927’s The Jazz Singer. From this point on, the end of the silent era was nigh and with it, many of its biggest stars (a number of whom were simply unable to make the transition because they weren’t talented enough voice actors).
And who do we have to thank for this transformation at the heart of Hollywood? A young engineering and telephony graduate from St Helens called George Groves. Born in 1901 above a barber’s shop in the town, educated locally and at Liverpool University, Groves boarded a ship for New York in 1922 and found himself working in the emerging field of film sound.
He proved extremely adept and developed the early recording and mixing techniques that allowed the talkie to flourish and eventually take over completely from the silent film. Groves worked directly on both Don Juan and The Jazz Singer and in so doing became the first-ever production recordist.
In a lengthy career, the Merseysider pioneered countless sound techniques and recording practices that the film and television industries take for granted today and won two Oscars for his sound work – for My Fair Lady and Sayonara. He also became director of sound at Warner Brothers, one of the biggest Hollywood studios.
A campaign by his sister, then in her 90s, resulted in two British Film Industry plaques being created to recognise Groves’ achievements: one at his birthplace in St Helens and the other at the Warners Cinema in London’s West End. Talkies, eh? They’ll never catch on.
3. PRINCIPAL POLICY PLANNER, GREATER CAMBRIDGE SHARED PLANNING
Location: Cambourne, Cambridgeshire
The job: "We have an exciting opportunity for a principal policy planner to join our vibrant and busy planning policy and strategy team in delivering an exciting and innovative work programme.
"The team is currently working on a huge range of projects, including developing the first joint local plan in an area with the fastest growing city economy in the country, incorporating major regeneration schemes and new developments. We also have clear environmental ambitions and have commissioned pioneering work on climate change and meeting net zero carbon to inform our policy development. The team also deals with the councils’ input to the development of significant transport infrastructure schemes that are prepared by various transport bodies, including the East West Rail project.
"We're looking for an experienced planner to join the team and play an important role in delivering this exciting range of
Fun fact: When we compile the fun facts for The Friday Five, there are certain places that we know are going to cause us anxiety – either because we've been there so often there’s nothing much left for us to say, or because there’s almost nothing to say about them in the first place. We’re sorry to report that Cambourne falls into the latter category.
This is through no fault of its own, you understand; merely that it’s a very new settlement (still being developed) and it’s not actually been around long enough for anything of note to have happened there. If you don't believe us, check out the Wikipedia page. Possibly the most interesting thing to be said about Cambourne is that it almost wasn't called Cambourne at all, but Monkfield (which sounds like a much more interesting place). And that its sports centre was opened by footballer Darren Bent, gymnast Beth Tweddle and paralympian Harriet Lee (their names will go down in history). Or that it has a higher birth rate than the rest of the South Cambridgeshire area on account of the young families that have moved into the new settlement.
Is Cambourne the most boring town in Britain? We’re sure it can’t be nearly as uneventful as Breich in Scotland where, famously, just one person a day on average used the railway station, but we’re struggling here.
On the other hand, if you’re a planner – great place to work: a chance to help shape the growth and development of a brand new place. Planning in the raw, right? Go for it.
4. SENIOR PLANNING OFFICER, THREE RIVERS DISTRICT COUNCIL
Location: Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire
The job: "We're looking for an experienced planning officer to assist in the preparation of the Three Rivers Local Plan. You will help achieve the objectives of the council by providing planning policy expertise during public consultations, committee meetings and working groups. You'll provide advice to officers and elected members in planning policy matters, ensuring appropriate regulations are met, and you'll work collaboratively with colleagues to improve the planning departments land use and local plan monitoring capability."
Fun fact: Here’s one for the many geological relocation enthusiasts amongst you: Rickmansworth has some of the most surprisingly travelled gravel in the country.
The Hertfordshire town supplied the rock used for aggregate in the construction of the original Wembley Stadium. With so much gravel taken, the space left in the local quarries was able to be converted into lakes that now form part of the Rickmansworth Aquadrome, a popular Local Nature Reserve and leisure spot.
So, was that it for Rickmansworth’s relocated rock? Dream on. Because when Wembley was torn down and reconstructed – between 2000 and 2007 – the discarded material was then driven west along the A40 to Northolt, where it was deposited in three mounds and landscaped into a new local landmark, Northala Fields park and garden. Stand on top of one of the mounds and not only can you get a splendid view of the new Wembley’s famous arch, you’ll also be standing on a little bit of Rickmansworth.
5. PLANNING OFFICER/SENIOR PLANNING OFFICER, RUNNYMEDE BOROUGH COUNCIL
Location: Addlestone, Surrey
The job: "We're a friendly and ambitious development management team with a great track record in delivering projects and we're looking for a positive individual to join our team. We have an up to date local plan and an otherwise full team with all permanent staff.
"If you have a town planning (or related) degree or are due to graduate with one in 2023, then an opportunity as a planning officer is a fantastic opportunity to build a career in planning.
"For a senior planning officer role, you would be expected to have strong comparable practical planning experience in a local authority. You'd be given a case load of interesting and more complex cases and plenty of chances to further develop your skills.
"Most of all, we're seeking a confident, self-motivated and diplomatic person with a ‘can-do’ attitude and the ability to deliver positive outcomes for the future of the borough."
Fun fact: Addlestone – you’ve probably never heard of it, but it’s actually quite an interesting place. There’s the Crouch Oak tree, for example, beneath the branches of which Queen Elizabeth I Is said to have picnicked, when it marked the boundary of Windsor Forest. There’s the Blériot connection – Addlestone was home to an aircraft factory in the latter part of the First World War. Or the mentions in War of the Worlds, on account of the second wave of Martian spaceships landing on the town’s golf course.
Then there’s the marvellous Barrie de Suys. You’ve never heard of him. Why would you? He is – or was – president of the Addlestone Lawn Bowls club and in February 2022 he was given the Bowls England’s prestigious ‘Story of the Year’ award on account of his perambulating a full 2,400 0.6 miles in laps of the club's Addlestone Victory Park during the Covid lockdown, to raise money for the Royal National Institute of the Blind.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” you say.
If you, like us, are a student of pedestrianism, the historic practice of long-distance walking for wagers, you might think his achievement pales beside the great Captain Tom Barclay’s 1,000 miles in 1,000 hours challenge of 1809. But our man de Suys walked 1,440 miles. And he was 87 at the time. We think that that deserves some recognition. Well done, sir. We salute you.
Image credits | xxx
