Somerset council expands planning team to target rural development

A Somerset local authority is looking to expand its planning team thanks to a host of major projects coming on stream.

Sedgemoor District Council service manager for development management, Stuart Houlet, told Planning: “We have a big planning team for a small, busy area – this is not a sleepy rural district.

“We have big housing and employment projects, meanwhile the Hinkley Point C supply chain is ramping up in readiness for the project.

“We have a good mix of applications centred around the town of Bridgewater (pictured) with pressures to build there and the rural hinterland.”

Sedgemoor wants to recruit a senior planning officer to add to a development management team that currently numbers eight planners.

“Sedgemoor is 18th in the national planning performance league tables and the new postholder will be a crucial 'engine room' for the department, working on all kinds of minor and major projects, east and west of the district", Houlet said. 

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