Principal Planner - NSIP experience required

We are pleased to be working on an exciting opportunity with a council in the East of England, who are looking for a Principal Planner to join their team on a long term contract. 

The Opportunity

The council are seeking a highly experienced Principal Planner to join their team on a temporary basis and support a Project Manager and Planning Technician to help deliver high quality and well-designed significant and large scale Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs).

To be successful in this role you must have a breadth of planning experience and be highly organised with excellent negotiation skills and previous experience of dealing with developers, agents and consultants on large scale proposals and projects, you must also have a keen interest in delivering sustainable development and creating a long-term legacy, social value and community benefits from NSIPs and major schemes for the local and wider community.

Accountabilities

• Responsible for leading the engagement to produce corporate response to the Development Consent Order stage to National Significant Infrastructure Projects across a wide variety of infrastructure proposals.
• Responsible for maximising the council's influence to shape and secure developer infrastructure contributions for strategic and complex Development Consent Orders; working closely with Senior Leadership Team, affected Local Planning Authorities and outside agencies to align positions when negotiating with developers/applicants.
• Responsible for the technical/professional analysis, negotiation and assessment of the most complex/controversial development proposals offering professional advice and recommendations to ensure sound evidence-based recommendations/decisions are made.
• Act as a council representative on relevant financial/infrastructure matters to lead negotiations on the most complex DCO proposals applications to support strategic planning proposal by developers, scheme promoters and their consultants.
• Responsible for producing briefing notes, reports and recommendations for Cabinet, senior leaders within the council, and implementing the resolutions and decisions. 
• Work collaboratively with key stakeholders to progress planning control matters and advising on planning issues to ensure that DCO’s are fully appraised and evaluated.
• Responsible for co-ordinating and giving evidence at public inquiries, examinations in public and in court in order to defend the council's planning decisions as may be required.
• Responsible for leading on key elements of planning projects and/or for the delivery of specific outcomes using project/programme management methodologies in order to ensure projects are delivered on time and within budget.
• Specific individual and shared targets and objectives are defined annually within the performance management framework. 

The Experience You Will Bring

• Candidates must be MRTPI qualified.
• Knowledge of NSIPs and DCOs would be highly advantageous.
• Strong negotiation skills coupled with excellent stake holder management experience.

Please reach out to Sean Lindley at slindley@macdonaldandcompany.com if you would like to discuss this position further, plus others we are currently working on across the business.