Senior Planning Officer

Job Introduction

Role Purpose 

Senior Planner Officer (Development Management) 
 
Your new organisation

Born out of Local Government Reorganisation in 2019, Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council have come together to form the 10^th largest urban local authority in England. It is a place where culture and heritage meet innovation and modernity, village meets town, country meets coast, creativity meets digital, businesses flourish and people thrive. The potential for investment and economic growth is huge. 

With over 15 miles of beautiful, world-renowned coastline, the area has excellent transport links, with rail and road connections nationally and to London, as well as international flights from Bournemouth Airport. 

 Its communities are vibrant and diverse, with an outstanding quality of life, where everyone plays an active role. It is an area where people love to live, learn, work, explore, invent and relax.

BCP Council has a culture of openness to ideas and experimentation in how they do things and welcome imaginative, creative and ambitious thinking. There is a corporate transformation programme underway that seeks to make the best use of technology to deliver the best possible services to the area’s communities.

BCP Council is consistently in the top ten busiest local planning authorities in the country, representative of our diverse area, overall strategic growth and development opportunities, inward investment interest and premier location on the south coast as the place to live, work and play. 

BCP Council has ambitious plans for growth to meet its housing and other development needs. This therefore represents one of the most exciting planning opportunities in the country where you will perform a key role in helping to deliver outstanding planning outcomes that achieve the appropriate balance between meeting growth ambitions and respecting the area’s outstanding natural and built environment.

In recognition of this, the planning department is shaping itself into being one of the fastest growing and best performing local planning authorities in the country, both in terms of speed and quality of decision making. Come and be part of our excellent and supportive team and help us deliver this vision. 

Your new role

BCP is seeking curious, creative and ambitious individuals to be a part of their journey in planning for the future growth and prosperity of the region. We are looking to welcome candidates with the desire to make an impact and feel confident sharing their ideas. The Councils team ethos is one which encourages collaboration and thoughtful contribution towards how the Council delivers their planning service, to best serve the interests of the community and region. 

Within your role as a Senior Planner Officer, your accountabilities will include:

• Appraise and make recommendations and decisions on a wide range of planning applications (these will often be major developments and/or complex and controversial applications) against Local and National Planning Policy, regulations, and legislative frameworks to ensure that applications are compliant with requirements and BCP Council’s vision. 
• Where necessary assist the Team Leader in the allocation of work and the signing off of planning applications, pre-application responses and other work requiring senior level sign off. 
• Conduct public consultations in line with statutory requirements and Council policy to ensure that all parties affected by potential development can provide comment and appropriate input
• Provide advice and support to Planning Officers to ensure appropriate and effective service is delivered to the required standard
• Provide specialist planning related advice and guidance through the pre-application process to all customers and interested parties to help ensure that future planning applications will be aligned to the Local and National Planning Policy. 
• Represent the Council and deal with planning appeals as a case officer to defend the Council’s decisions.
• Negotiate with external agencies and Applicants to ensure that defined environmental betterment and housing quotas are delivered in planning applications
• Present applications to the Planning Committee to enable effective decision-making by the Committee.
• Contribute to the preparation of the Local Plan Development Plan and Supplementary Planning Documents in order to help shape future policy to ensure that planning policies can be applied successfully in the decision-making process. 

Dimensions of the role:

• This role is required to support and mentoring of more junior colleagues
• This role does not manage any direct budgets

What you'll need to succeed

• Degree in Town Planning or related degree and / or suitable experience
• Member or eligibility to become a member of the Royal Town Planning Institute
• Experience of working in development management on cases with a range of complexity, as well as a good understanding of planning policy, legislation and the enforcement processes
• Detailed knowledge of planning legislation such as Town and Country Planning Act, National Policy Framework, Legislation and Planning Practice Guidance. 
• Strong understanding of the Development Management process
• Ability to translate complex information, provide professional advice and guidance and to present information to a range of stakeholders in a clear and precise manner
• Ability to manage a case load of complex planning applications and appeals

What you'll get in return

• Flexible, tailored and accommodating hybrid working arrangements to suit a wide variety of applicants 
• Access to newly modern, newly refurbished office hub location in the heart of Bournemouth town centre
• Excellent pension scheme 
• Relocation packages available up to £8,000 (subject to approval)
• Cycle to work scheme 
• Family support services 
• Wellbeing, Employee support and Counselling services
• Supportive and collaborative working environment in which to develop your career 

Job Requirements - see attached JD

Must be able to travel, using public or other forms of transport where they are viable, or by holding a valid UK driving licence with access to own or pool car. 

There may be occasional need to work outside of Council office hours or weekends. 

About BCP Council

BCP Council provides services to a diverse community of 400,000 residents and employs more than 5,000 people. Our area includes over 15 miles of beautiful world-renowned coastline. We can offer career defining roles to transform and improve services. By working with us, you can help deliver a vision of a thriving, word-class, prosperous and inclusive place for generations to come.

Our Benefits

We offer an excellent benefits package to colleagues. Find out more on our website.

As a result of the creation of BCP Council in 2019, we are working on simplifying our terms and conditions of service and will be creating a single pay structure which is to be applicable for all employees. It is important to us that we offer benefits that our colleagues value as part of their total employment package and we are reviewing these to make sure we have it right. We are in the process of establishing a timescale for implementation and colleagues joining us will be included in these changes. This is expected to be in place in 2024.