Starting salary: £51,440 pa with potential progression to £61,607 pa on achieving designated skills and experience

Contract: Permanent, Full Time (37 hours per week)

Location: Council Offices, Campus East, Welwyn Garden City, AL8 6AE

Reporting to the Assistant Director (Planning) you will manage and lead our planning policy and implementation service. This is a challenging and rewarding post, as you will be expected to lead this part of the planning service through its continued development and make a significant contribution to the future shape of the borough. This requires a strong background in planning policy within both urban and rural environments. You will need to deliver the planning reforms set out in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill envisaged for the plan making system, as well as to lead the team in supporting corporate initiatives for town centre regeneration and other regeneration priorities.

About Us

Welwyn Hatfield includes the two towns of Hatfield and Welwyn Garden City but also encompasses a significant rural area which is designated as Green Belt. There are pressures and opportunities for major development within the main towns and urban extensions to towns and villages proposed in the emerging local plan. You will have a key role to play in delivering these major projects as well as helping to make sure our planning service is working in a modern, efficient, and effective way.

You will join a forward-thinking council that puts their customers first. We know that in order to provide the best for our residents and visitors, we need to do the same for our people. We have set out to make our workplaces vibrant and happy places to be, places where our people feel safe, content and valued. This role will involve a mixture of office and home working.

About You

This is a key management position within the department and in addition to essential management skills we are looking for someone who can lead and inspire staff in a pressured environment. We need a person with excellent interpersonal, communication and IT skills, as well as the ability to manage a substantial budget and engage in a variety of departmental and corporate initiatives.

You will:

• Have a degree in town planning or a related discipline and be eligible for membership of the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI)
• Have substantial experience of professional town planning work within the planning policy field
• Have significant experience of managing staff, functions, processes, and budgets

Benefits

We can offer you a unique and attractive working environment in the heart of Welwyn Garden City, flexible working arrangements, free parking, and access to electric pool cars as well as the usual Local Government benefits including pension scheme and generous annual leave allowance.

The deadline for applications is 5 June 2022.

Assessments and interviews will be held week commencing 20 June 2022.