Assistant Planner

• East Suffolk Council, Riverside, Lowestoft NR33 0EQ or East Suffolk House, Melton, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 1RT
• £27,344 - £33,820 per annum (career grade)
• 37 hours per week
• Permanent

East Suffolk Council is an exciting place to work and a great place to make a real difference to people’s lives, delivering vital services to a quarter of a million people across East Suffolk.

We currently have an exciting opportunity to join the East Suffolk Council's growing Planning Team as an Assistant Planner.

Your role

In this entry role you will work proactively and professionally with all customers to provide a high quality development management experience within East Suffolk, and to manage and assess planning applications and pre-application submissions in accordance with planning law, national and local policy and guidance.

You will develop your skills as a planner to achieve well designed development, uphold the decisions of the appeal process, assist with some planning enforcement duties and take account of relevant legislation, policies and procedures of the Council, and also assisting the Planning team to meet agreed targets and standards.

What you will need

With a recognised qualification (to degree level or equivalent) in related discipline or experience of working in planning in either the public or private sector, you will have knowledge of current planning working practices, development design, planning law and regulations.

Confidence in negotiation, the ability to foster robust working relationships, and strong analytical skills and are all essential for this position.

If you think you have what it takes to be successful in this role, even if you don’t meet all of the essential requirements, please apply.

We would appreciate the opportunity to consider your application.

Why work for us?

East Suffolk Council is a great place to work and there are lots of benefits our employees can access. To find out more about why we are so proud of East Suffolk Council, take a look at our video and hear why our employees think it is such a great place to work (youtube).

In addition to the rural and urban diversity of East Suffolk itself, the district is close to the large urban centres of both Norwich and Ipswich, with rail services providing access to the Council’s offices by train. We might be 'on the edge' but we can be accessed easily from a wide area (jpg) and offer flexible and remote working in a dynamic team.

Here are some of the main benefits:

• Generous leave entitlement (equivalent to 25 days a year, increasing to 31 days after 5 years’ service, plus bank holidays)
• Local government pension scheme
• Flexible working arrangements
• Learning and development tailored to your role
• A wide variety of staff support networks including access to health and wellbeing initiatives and programmes.
• Discounts on mobile phones, computers, holiday and travel, fashion and clothing, health and beauty and many other products and services.

Find more information about what we offer in our benefits brochure (pdf).

The majority of our teams are working in an agile way, with a mixture of home and office working, depending on individual preferences and service requirements. If you wish to discuss how that might impact your working arrangements if you were the successful candidate, please contact the recruiting manager listed at the bottom of this advert.

For more information

You can find out more about planning in East Suffolk and the work we do on our planning recruitment webpage (URL).

For an informal discussion regarding this post, please contact Ben Woolnough, our Planning Manager (Development Management), on 07833 406681

Closing date: 1pm, 7 March 2023.

Interview date: w/c 20 March 2023.

How to apply

Step 1 - Read the advert and the Job Description and Person Specification (docx)

Step 2 - Complete the Supporting Statement template (docx). Your statement needs to indicate how you meet each of the criteria contained within the Person Specification. Please use the template provided (other formats will not be accepted).

Step 3 - Complete the online application and upload your statement. Please note, CVs are not accepted.

For more information, check out the How to Apply section of our Career Site (URL).