Growth and Development Manager 

Contract: Permanent

Working Hours: Full-time

Salary: Up to £57,000 pa

Location: Chelmsford

Closing Date: 29/07/18 

Job summary and Responsibilities

Interviews will take place on Tuesday 7th and Wednesday 8th August 2018.

This is a very exciting and rewarding time to be planning for sustainable growth in Essex. With 180,000 homes planned, the Council has established a new Growth and Development team to lead on responding to the large scale planning applications on which we are consulted. This has created fantastic opportunities for an experienced and ambitious manager who wants to work in one of the largest local authorities and be part of a highly regarded planning team. 

 
If you have the talent to shape and help deliver high quality development in the right place at the right time, whilst respecting the county’s natural and built assets, then you could be the person we’re looking for.

Job Purpose Summary:

Working with the Essex growth agenda, the Planning Service will deliver a more consistent approach and better manage the complexity of relationships across City/District/Borough Councils and developers. Working with key stakeholders the service will deliver well-balanced good quality development, addressing the housing, economic, infrastructure and environmental needs of communities.
This role will introduce a structure change in the way ECC deals with large scale planning applications and manage an experienced team to implement changes which deliver a corporate single response to the most difficult/complex strategic pre-applications/planning applications.
The role will lead engagement with other ECC services to produce a quality and timely “single response” to pre-application/planning applications, ensuring ECC successfully influences the planning application process to secure policy compliant planning decisions and the correct level of developer funded infrastructure contributions.

Organisational Responsibilities:

Roles at this level will provide expert professional advice to inform corporate management and development of the council as a whole. They will lead on turning this advice into business cases for political approval. The service delivery requirements and standards are usually clearly defined by the Director with annual staff and financial budgets

The role is accountable for:

• Operational planning and performance review to maintain exceptional service delivery and ensures the political objectives and priorities of the council are met
• Working collaboratively within and across functions to and thinking commercially support the delivery of best possible outcomes for our customers on a financially sustainable basis
• Maintain and nurture collaborative relationships with other teams in the function and external organisations that support the delivery of annual plans
• Implementing changes and continually evaluating service to improve the area of work, while maintaining the highest possible levels of service quality are continually delivered
• Managing complex issues and resources to meet the needs of customers and deliver the best possible outcomes
• Effective utilisation of digital technologies and innovation across the function.
• Equality and diversity is celebrated and considered as part of all decisions taken
• Using professional expertise to translate goals and plans into ways of working that comply with relevant legislation and statutory requirements and manages a level of appropriate risk
• Deliver exemplar customer interactions to individuals and communities which support strong relationships and a reputation for achieving outcomes and resolving issues.

Knowledge, skills and experience

 • Educated to degree level or equivalent by experience qualified as a town planner with an MRTPI qualification. And evidence of up to 10 years post qualification experience from either District Councils or the private sector.
• Evidence of continuing professional development and expert knowledge in relevant professional area.
• Managerial experience and proven capability as a professional leader, as evidenced by either a certificate or diploma in management skills desirable
• Evidence of successfully managing complex cases with demonstrable evidence of leading or of playing an increasingly major role in achieving larger/high profile projects across a range of service/partnership areas.
• Evidence of an innovative approach and financial aptitude within an agile environment.
• Effective leadership skills, able to manage and motivate others whilst developing good relationships with stakeholders and partners. Confident manner and approach in which to represent ECC. And the ability to engage with key agencies and stakeholders that assist in the delivery of successful outcomes.
• Proven experience of giving evidence at plan examinations, public inquiries or similar.


Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.

We seek the best talent from the widest pool of people as diversity is key to our success.

As part of employment with Essex County Council (ECC) should your role require a DBS check you will be required to register with the DBS update service. The DBS update service ensures all registered DBS certificates are kept up to date and allows authorised parties to view the status of your certificate. This is an annual subscription and you will be responsible for ensuring this is maintained. For further information on the DBS update service please visit: https://www.gov.uk/dbs-update-service

Essex County Council is proud to offer an excellent benefits package to all its employees. More information can be found on https://www.workingforessex.com/benefits)

If you have any queries regarding this role, or require anything further, please contact the Essex Recruitment Team on 033 005 83330*
 

*Calls to this number are charged in the same way as calls to numbers starting 01 or 02, please check with your service provider

Interviews will take place on Tuesday 7th and Wednesday 8th August 2018.