Assistant Planner/Planner

The Opportunity

Salary: £27,334 - £36,648 per annum, depending on skills and experience.
Working Pattern: Full time, 37 hours per week, flexible working available.
Location: County Hall, Chichester
Interview Date: Thursday 09 May 2024

The advertised post is an integral part of the dedicated and experienced team, undertaking the roles and responsibilities of the Council in its planning. The County Council is the Waste Planning Authority and the Minerals Planning Authority for West Sussex (excluding those parts of the County covered by the South Downs National Park). It is responsible for the delivery of functions, duties and services associated with minerals and waste planning policy, as well as other land-use planning policy matters.

As the Assistant Planner / Planner Officer you would be involved in a range of land-use planning policy matters, including preparation of the statutory minerals and waste local plans, its supporting evidence base and monitoring of the plans, as well as responding to planning policy consultations. This includes strategic and local planning policy issues, in particular liaising with the local planning authorities about the preparation of their local plans and the potential implications for County Council services and functions as well as working on the key neighbourhood plans in the County. The role also includes working with services to identify infrastructure associated with new development and assist the delivery of infrastructure through the allocation of developer contributions. The role involves working with the local planning authorities, the area economic partnerships and other partners, on planning to deliver strategic priorities for West Sussex.

If you are degree level qualified in a relevant subject (or equivalent qualification or experience), have experience of working in planning and are interested in developing a career in this interesting service area we look forward to hearing from you.

This position is a career grade post, please refer to the job description for the Key Skills and Qualifications and/or experience. If successfully offered, you will be appointed at the grade relevant to your skills and experience level.

Rewards & Benefits

As well as adding real value to our service users and our communities, as an employer we recognise our employees are central in being able to achieve this. To recognise this we want to help support your development and provide an great place to work ensuring you can fulfil your full potential, have access to a range of benefits including:

• an excellent local government pension scheme
• generous holiday entitlement of 25 - 27 days (plus opportunity to buy additional leave)
• a range of flexible working options, depending on your job role
• maternity, paternity, dependency and adoption leave
• volunteering opportunities
• training and development opportunities, including coaching and mentoring
• a range of discounts giving our staff access to hundreds of offers; groceries, travel, cinema tickets, days out, leisure activities, high street retailers and the opportunity to save over £1,000 a year through our West Sussex Choices benefits platform (see our Staff discounts page if you are a business looking to offer a discount)
• health and wellbeing benefits including access to our Employee Assistance Programme, Mental Health First Aiders and Voluntary Health Cash Plans

For a full list this can be found at our Rewards and Benefits page.

Further information

The reference number for these roles are EIE01277.

For an informal conversation or for further information regarding the roles, please contact Caroline West, Planning Policy and Infrastructure Team Manager at or Rupy Sandhu, Principal Planning Officer at

For issues or queries regarding your application please contact .

To apply, please follow the links below upload your CV and complete the application explaining the skills and experience you can bring to the role ensuring that any gaps in employment are covered in your CV.

The role involves some outdoor work for which wearing personal protective equipment is necessary. You will also need to be able to travel independently around the County, including to areas that are not easily accessible by public transport. There is a regular and intrinsic requirement to communicate in English with members of the public.

West Sussex County Council is an equal opportunities employer committed to promoting an environment that is inclusive and free from all forms of unlawful or unfair discrimination and values the diversity of its people. We actively welcome applications from people of all backgrounds and take every possible step to ensure that no individual will be disadvantaged.

For information regarding your eligibility to apply for this role under our Disability or Veteran's Guaranteed Interview Scheme, this can be found on our application help page.