Senior Project Officer (Conservation)
Grade 9-11 (£34,209 - £40,869 pa)

Croydon has a surprisingly rich and varied built heritage. This includes the highly significant Old Palace School (former Archbishop’s Palace), Croydon Minster, and 16th century Whitgift Almshouses (all Grade I Listed), as well as a particularly fine concentration of Victorian architecture in the town centre. The borough is diverse, ranging from dense London suburban development in the north to the leafy green belt to the south. Croydon is also increasingly being recognised for its post-war 20th century heritage, including buildings in the town centre such as No.1 Croydon and the 1970s St. Bernards development on Park Hill, one of a limited number of post-War conservation areas in the country.

Croydon’s heritage is protected through having 180 statutory listing entries, 21 conservation areas throughout the borough, 8 scheduled monuments, and 3 registered parks and gardens, as well as a well-established series of local heritage designations, including locally listed buildings, local heritage areas and locally listed parks and gardens. 

About the role

This post offers a unique and exciting opportunity to join Croydon’s Placemaking Team and Spatial Planning Service, which brings together the disciplines of urban design, conservation, architecture, landscape architecture and planning policy. You will provide heritage expertise to support a coordinated approach to the planning and delivery of sustainable development in Croydon over the next 20 years. You will have a qualification related to heritage and conservation. You will be involved in a wide range of Spatial Planning and Development Management projects and applications, and will assist in placing heritage at the heart of the borough’s plans for the future.

You will be required to undertake a range of tasks related to heritage protection and building conservation, including: 

• providing specialist advice on all conservation-related matters, including pre-application advice, planning applications, appeals and Council growth and regeneration projects
• monitoring the Heritage at Risk Register and working proactively to facilitate removal of assets from it
• maintaining lists of designated heritage assets
• producing Conservation Area Appraisals and Management Plans
• updating the borough’s Local List of valued buildings 

You will demonstrate a solid understanding of current legislation, policy, guidance and best practice in relation to planning and heritage protection. You will be able to demonstrate conservation and heritage-related professional experience and passion for the historic environment. You will also have a good understanding of how diverse social and cultural heritage informs local distinctiveness and character whilst forming part of a holistic approach to heritage led placemaking.

In addition to the person specification, the successful candidate will also be motivated, innovative and able to prioritise a varied and challenging work programme. Excellent communication skills are essential due to the high level of internal and external stakeholder engagement. 

About the Placemaking Team

The Croydon Council Placemaking Team is an award winning, multidisciplinary team of built environment practitioners with experience from the strategic level through to detailed design and delivery. The team sits within the Council’s Sustainable Communities, Regeneration & Economic Recovery Directorate and works across strategic planning, urban design, architecture & landscape architecture, research, public engagement, public realm, public art & culture, heritage and conservation. The team is part of the Spatial Planning Service, which brings together Croydon’s Placemaking, Planmaking, Growth and Regeneration functions to provide a holistic and coordinated approach to planning, design and delivery. It comprises of urban designers, architects, landscape architects, built heritage specialists, cultural practitioners and planners. 

The work of the team has been highlighted and praised in the Farrell Review as an exemplar for best practice in ‘proactive planning’, emphasising the unique role that the team plays in providing a range of design and placemaking services to internal and external clients. This ranges from collaboratively developing 20 year Local Plans and related supplementary guidance documents; championing heritage; working with developers and local communities to create high quality and inclusive places and spaces; producing urban design frameworks and masterplans; building community capacity; improving perceptions and identity of places, and designing and building short, medium and long term projects on the ground.

For this role, all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion or philosophical belief, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, caring commitments, disability or age. 

The Croydon Placemaking Team is committed to ensuring a fair and open place of work. We aim to shape places that are created with and enjoyed by all people of different cultures, identities, needs and experiences. We believe that our team should reflect the diverse communities we serve and therefore particularly encourage applications from disability groups and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Colour), and people with trans+ identities who are currently under-represented within our team.

As users of the Disability Confident scheme, we guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the advertised role. We will also be pleased to consider applications from candidates seeking flexible working arrangements.

To apply for this role, please click here to go straight to the website where you can apply directly online.

For the role Senior Project Officer (Conservation) role profile, please click here

The closing date for applications is: Sunday 23 January 2022
Interviews are scheduled to take place on Monday 14th and Tuesday 15th February 2022.

If you have further questions please email spatialplanning@croydon.gov.uk or call Robert Buckley (Lead Conservation Officer) on 07707277388 or Anisha Jogani (Placemaking Team Leader) on 07742405438

Equal opportunities statement

Croydon Council is an inclusive employer and welcomes applications from all sections of the community. We will be pleased to consider applications from candidates seeking flexible working arrangements.

Croydon council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff to share this commitment.