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Wonderful Workplaces: Opportunity beckons at Turley in Reading

Written by: Turley
Published on: 9 Jan 2018

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Insider insight into what it’s like to work at Turley in Reading and the leadership role it’s recruiting for.

Turley team

The Reading Turley team

Our Reading team has grown significantly since its inception in 2015. Our dedicated team of planners and designers work with great clients on high profile projects of quality and distinction.

We are looking for a director/associate director to join our leadership team in Reading, extending our successful national logistics, commercial and employment land offer locally in the South / South East. Scheme types we typically undertake include the promotion of strategic land and detailed planning applications. 

From our base in Reading, which is only two minutes’ walk from Reading train station, we practise across the South East. We are already fusing valuable relationships across the region with clients in the Greater Thames Valley, Oxford, Aylesbury, Milton Keynes, Luton and Stevenage.

It’s an exciting time to join our ambitious team and to make further contributions to our future success. Recent major projects the team is working on include:

  • Swindon Gateway Retail Park – The team in Reading has obtained full planning permission for a new out-of-town retail park in north Swindon, to be known as Swindon Gateway. 
  • Chineham Park, Basingstoke – On behalf of Patrizia and Oak Tree Capital, the team secured a phased planning permission for three new flexible use buildings on a green field site, forming an extension to the existing business park. The team is actively engaged in discharging conditions pursuant to works starting as well as advising the owners on other matters around the park. 
  • Winnersh, Reading – Acting for our client Whitbread PLC, our team secured full planning permission for a new 100-bedroom Premier Inn Hotel, Beefeater Restaurant and Costa Coffee drive-through on a previously developed site at a gateway location in Winnersh.
  • Aldermaston Park, Berkshire – Aldermaston Park is a unique private estate and lake in prime Berkshire extending to approximately 139 acres. Aldermaston Manor is Grade II* Listed and the surrounding grounds are designated Grade II Historic Park and Gardens. Our planning, heritage and engagement teams are all involved in building a robust case for the construction of around 200 homes in order to fund the restoration of the Grade II* listed manor house and surrounding parkland, the latter of which is currently on the Historic England ‘at risk’ register.
  • Land at North Newbury – The site forms a logical urban extension to North Newbury which will deliver up to 460 new homes as well as a new local centre, primary school, open space, including green corridor, allotments and play areas. 
  • Land at Mount Owen Road, Bampton – On behalf of our client, Gallagher Estates, we have secured outline consent for 160 new homes in West Oxfordshire. The application was granted at local level following six consecutive lost appeals for the authority and is one of a number of sites we are promoting in the District through the emerging Local Plan.

Freedom to Flourish 

Our business strategy, Freedom to Flourish, demonstrates Turley’s commitment to succeeding for clients and creating the conditions for personal wellbeing. We recognise we need to support life-stage flexibility whilst ensuring business and client needs are met. Our Freedoms - Flexibility and Responsibility Framework sets out our approach. Tim Burden, director, has shared his thoughts on what ‘Our Freedoms’ mean to him:

"When I was talking to Turley about joining, I was impressed with the message being given out about Freedom to Flourish, specifically the Flexibility and Responsibility Framework, and this was important to me with small children. 

 

"The key message for me is responsibility – to our clients, our co-owners, and to us and our families. Having worked for consultancies with fixed hours of working and lunch breaks, the additional flexibilities make a world of difference to me, and I believe makes me more productive and driven. In Reading, I would hope that we have instilled these values in our co-owners – and our business performance should be regarded as showing how they can work in practice!"

- Tim Burden, director, Turley

An environment where co-owners flourish

Our business strategy captures our culture, informs all our strategic decisions and creates the conditions for our continued growth.

We are committed to maintaining our enviable position as a market leader and continuing to provide an environment where our co-owners flourish professionally and personally.

Since the office opened in 2015, there have already been three promotions in Reading. Sara Dutfield shares her experience of being supported to progress to director.

 

“I joined Turley having explored the future opportunities and discussed the prospects with senior directors during the recruitment process, who were supportive of my career goals from the outset and who were confident that Turley would give me the opportunities and the platform to move forwards.

 

"Since day one of joining the company I have been supported and encouraged to push myself to achieve those goals. I was given opportunities to join corporate initiatives and have a wider role than just my day to day job, as well as being supported to expand my network and bring in new and interesting work for the company. It was, and continues to be, great to be able to use the wide office network within the company to meet other co-owners and understand matters with a broader perspective than just our local area. The local and national support network from all co-owners has been a key factor in giving me the confidence to try new things, to push myself and ultimately to be promoted in June 2017.”

- Sara Dutfield, director, Turley

Employee ownership 

As an employee-owned business all of our people have a stake in our success – we are co-owners. This drives our culture and our competitive advantage.

Watch this short video to hear why employee ownership is important to Amy Gilham, head of logistics:

If we do not have a suitable role for you currently and you are keen to keep in touch for the future we would love to hear from you. For a confidential and informal conversation please contact Sophie Romain, senior HR advisor: sophie.romain@turley.co.uk / 0161 233 7646 or Katie Simpson, HR manager: katie.simpson@turley.co.uk / 0161 233 7623.  
 

Find out more and apply for the director / associate director role at Turley


Planning Jobs has launched a new campaign called 'Wonderful Workplaces' to get planning consultancies and local authorities enthused about showcasing their employer brand. For more information, visit the Wonderful Workplaces section here.