Croydon restructure leads to recruitment drive

A restructure of planning services at the London Borough of Croydon has created a number of new vacancies within the expanding team.

The council is currently seeking a number of senior planning and planning officers plus two deputy team leaders and an enforcement officer.

Heather Cheesbrough, director of planning and strategic transport at the council told Planning that the appointments could take the size of the team from around 50 to nearer 60.

The restructuring will see the council abolish separate teams for major and householder applications, replacing them with two teams covering the north and south of the borough.

Planners from both teams will work on applications for Croydon town centre. 

Cheesbrough said: “In the past, the strategic teams have cherry picked the bigger stuff and it can be demotivating for other staff. Now we are looking for a high calibre of planner to take on a range of application sizes.”

One of the planning officer roles will focus on IT, using software to predict trends and help the council meet performance targets.

Another will focus on section 106 and community infrastructure levy payments.

The council is offering a 10 per cent recruitment and retention package on top of standard salaries, plus key worker payments for the deputy team leaders.

Cheesbrough said: "We did a benchmarking exercise to make sure we are paying competitive rates for planners with the skills we are seeking.”

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