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The Friday Five 30.07.21

Published on: 29 Jul 2021

Are you awesome? Well, are you? North Devon council needs to know...

It's the Friday Five - five of the best from Planner Jobs this week - and we start with a cracker.

Oh, and because it's the Olympics we're highlighting Tokyo Olympians associated with each of the featured locations.

1. ARE YOU AWESOME? WE'RE HIRING! MULTIPLE ROLES WITH NORTH DEVON COUNCIL

Location: North Devon

The job: North Devon Council is expanding its planning team and they're inviting anyone interested to arrange a 'virtual open day' to find out more about the council and the opportunities on offer. Why can't all job ads be like this? Here we go:

"I’m Maria Bailey, North Devon Council’s Development Manager. I’m looking to further recruit to my fabulous planning team.

If your answer to the above question (Are you awesome?) is 'Absolutely YES I am…' and you are someone that is passionate about planning and good development with experience in the field - let’s talk some more.

North Devon Council are sadly soon to lose some of our most experienced planning officers. After years of loyalty they are stepping off the planning portal to enjoy the place they have helped to shape. I have support from my members and senior management to grow my team to meet an increased demand in our services and help deliver some of the exciting projects I list below:

  • Link Road Improvements
  • Barnstaple Vision 
  • Future High Streets
  • Seven Brethren
  • Barnstaple Flood Defence Programme and the regeneration opportunities that will bring
  • Ilfracombe: Water Sports Centre; Southern Extension; and Seafront Masterplan plus the Civic Court to name just a few.

In addition to those noted above, we will undoubtedly see the implications of the new trend of:

  • Staycationing in North Devon 
  • Growth in Tourism and Agriculture
  • Housing Needs plus being at the forefront of biodiversity and climate change innovation.

So, as much as I would have loved to invite you down to Devon for the weekend so we could chat further, I felt that with C-19 and our motto of safety first plus the majority of our accommodation being booked, I thought a virtual open day event would work best for us all.

You can come and meet with our Chief Executive Ken Miles who can talk through his new ‘One Team’ structure, Nina Lake our acting Head of Service and me, Maria, where I can talk with you about what it is like to work for North Devon Council and the benefits you can realise.

So if you’d like an invite to this open event, drop me a line at maria.bailey@northdevon.gov.uk telling me a little bit about yourself and your experience and I’ll send you a Teams invitation."

Steeplechase [square] North Devon Olympian: At 31, Barnstaple-born Phil Norman's route to the Olympic 3,000 metre steeplechase has been longer than most athletes. He actually gave up the sport at 18 after falling out of love with athletics and didn't compete for six years. He credits Mo Farah's autobiography with rekindling his passion for running.

A recent change has helped him to personal bests in the 5,000m and a best time of 8mins 20s in the 3,000m steeplechase to qualify for Tokyo. It's a tough, tough event, featuring 28 hurdles of three feet or more and seven water jumps. He's an outside bet for a medal but in such a hard and unpredictable event, anything is possible.

Phil's first heat was at 1.30 this morning. Alas, he was unable to qualify for the next stage of the competition.

Find out more and apply

2. PLANNING OFFICER (PLANNING POLICY TEAM), ADUR AND WORTHING COUNCILS

Location: West Sussex

The job: "Come and join our friendly team and help us to plan the future development of Adur District and Worthing Borough on the south coast. The planning officers for both councils work together as one team to cover this area.

"This is an exciting and challenging time as we have recently submitted the Worthing Local Plan for examination and are about to commence a review of the Adur Local Plan. You will have an important role in helping to take these forward along with related documents and guidance.  We work in partnership with a variety of bodies and organisations which adds to the interest of our work. 

The policy team is involved in a variety of work and you will be involved in several aspects of these including:

  • Housing delivery and monitoring
  • GIS Mapping
  • Sustainability and biodiversity
  • Economic regeneration

Ideally, you will have a town planning degree and some planning policy experience."

Archery [square] Worthing Olympian: Bryony Pitman, 24, is a Worthing Archery Club member who is competing at her first Olympics. Inspired by her father -  a world championship winning archer - she started competing in 2008. 

She's already a multiple medallist at both junior and senior level, her notable results including reaching the 2017 indoor world cup final; winning a silver and a bronze at the 2017 junior European indoor championships; winning the European Youth Cup and team silver with the GB team in the 2018 World Cup.

Pitman competed in the quarter final of the women's individual event at 2.35 this morning, unfortunately losing to her Russian opponent.

Find out more and apply

3. SENIOR PLANNING OFFICER, PRESTON CITY COUNCIL

Location: Preston, Lancashire

The job: "Preston City Council is part of the Preston, South Ribble and Lancashire City Deal. Work has already started on a £430 million, 10 year investment programme to grow the local economy by £1 billion, creating over 20,000 new jobs and building over 17,000 new homes. At this exciting time we are investing in our Planning service in order to deliver our corporate priorities.

"Preston has been jointly commended as the Royal Town Planning Institute’s Planning Authority Team of the Year 2021 and we are seeking an enthusiastic, motivated and well organised individual to take up a Senior Planning Officer role within the development management team.

"In this senior planning officer role you will deal with a wide range of planning applications, including major planning applications, across the city, covering numerous and often complex planning issues."

Weightlifting [square] Preston Olympians: Preston has two Olympians this year, both of whom came close to a medal in their respective sports. Weightlifter Sarah Davies came fifth n the 64kg category after a late bid fell short. Having lifted 127kg (yes, twice her bodyweight) in the clean and jerk, she missed out at 133kg, which would have put her in the silver medal spot.

The 28-year-old has competed for England and Great Britain in both the 64kg and 69kg weight categories. In 2015, she became the first Brit, man or woman, to win the European under-23 championships; she followed this up with silvers at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, and both the 2019 and 2021 European Championships.

Fellow Prestonian Graeme Thomas came agonisingly close to a medal, finishing fourth in the men's double sculls with rowing partner John Collins. a former rugby player, Thomas has two World Championship silver medals in the men's quadruple sculls.

Find out more and apply

4. LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT, PERTH AND KINROSS COUNCIL

Location: Perth, Perthshire

The job: "Perth and Kinross Council is seeking to appoint an enthusiastic and practical landscape architect to join a small, busy team in the community greenspace (CG) Section of the communities service. 

"This post will be embedded within the policy and project team of the community greenspace service. The role will provide specialist landscape knowledge and expertise within a multi-disciplinary cross-service team charged with delivering a multi-million pound programme of active travel and street enhancement projects across the city of Perth. 

"The landscape architect would be required to work at masterplanning scale through to detail design for transport corridors, streets for people, integrating neighbourhoods, developing pedestrian and blue/green links, sustainable design solutions and placemaking. The postholder will be responsible for ensuring the provision of a high-quality, fit-for-purpose landscape design service for projects prior to being handed over to the council's road infrastructure and property teams for delivery."

Distance Running [square] Perth and Kinross Olympian: Perth and Kinross is home to Laura Muir, one of Britain's finest middle distance runners ever. The current holder of the British records for 1500m, 1000m and 3000m, she's also a multiple European champion at 1500m and 3000m and a double Diamond League winner at 1500m.

She is a serious prospect for gold in the 1500m, particularly having smashed her personal best at 800m just a month ago, and will be running her heat on Monday, with an eye on the final next Friday.

Outside athletics, Laura is a qualified veterinary surgeon and has previously skipped championships in order to pass exams. Amazingly, one of her lecturers at Glasgow University was a fellow athlete, Hayley Haining, who was a Scottish teammate at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, coming 13th in the marathon (at the age of 42!).

Find out more and apply

5. ASSISTANT PLANNER/PLANNING OFFICER (DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT), KIRKLEES COUNCIL

Location: Kirklees, West Yorkshire

The job: "We are seeking a planner with experience of dealing with a range of complex minor applications to join our busy planning teams. The work is varied, interesting and if you want to develop, we have good opportunities to further your skills and experience across all types of planning applications and enquiries.

"As assistant planner/planner you will be responsible for the processing of planning, advertisement consents, listed building applications and other planning matters, undertaking site inspections and consultations within agreed targets, timescales and priorities.

"You will respond to enquiries from applicants, agents and developers; advising on planning and related permissions and the procedures to be followed. You will also discuss, consult and negotiate on proposals; prepare reports and formulate recommendations on planning applications. You will be required to travel across the district to satisfy the duties of the post and a current driving licence is therefore desirable."

Cycling [square] Kirklees Olympians: Kirklees has no shortage of Olympians, it seems. Worthy of a special mention are the Brownlee brothers, Alistair and Jonathan, who between them have two golds, a silver and a bronze Olympic triathlon medal. Jonathan lost touch with the leading group in this year's event and finished outside the medals.

Marcus Ellis and Lauren Smith from Huddersfield in Kirklees represented GB at badminton in this year's games and were beaten at the quarter final stage in the mixed doubles. Lois Toulson, also from Huddersfield, was out of the medals in the women's 10m synchronised doubles diving final.

But the most successful Kirklees Olympian - competing again this year - is track cyclist Ed Clancy. Already the holder of three gold medals for the team pursuit and a bronze for the omnium, he's going for a fourth team pursuit gold this Olympics, kicking off with qualifying on Monday and - hopefully - concluding with the final on Wednesday. Thought strictly speaking from Barnsley, Clancy was educated at Shelley College in Kirklees and lives in  Holmfirth within the borough.

Find out more and apply

Image credits | Shutterstock (1-4), Adam Pearson (5)