East Midlands council expands planning policy team

Rising workloads, including a 2,500-home urban extension, has led East Northamptonshire Council to seek to expand its planning policy team.

Planning policy and conservation manager Richard Palmer told Planning: “We need more people in the team to deliver what the council sees as priority projects.

“One of these is a new 2,500-dwelling mixed-use sustainable urban extension at Rushden East. This is a mainly rural district with six market towns within the landscape of the River Nene Valley.”

The council is seeking to recruit two principal officers to add to its policy team that currently numbers three planners.

The planning team is currently developing a local plan following and a soon-to-be-adopted North Northamptonshire joint core strategy.

“There will also be a range of interesting planning policy matters including neighbourhood planning, and work on a new garden village,” said Palmer.

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