Essex County Council

Principal Transportation and Infrastructure Planner

Salary: £54,889 to £64,576 per annum
Location: Chelmsford
Fixed Term, 5 years
Working Style: Anywhere worker

Closing date: 22 September 2024.

Five year fixed-term contract with a potential for extension, subject to budget and workload.

Calling all experienced and versatile transport planners – are you seeking a new challenge that will delivery major infrastructure and also help tackle climate change as well as create well planned communities and environments?

Would you like to have the opportunity to be at the forefront of creating new communities and pushing the boundaries of innovative transport planning? Are you a highly motivated and experienced transport planning professional who understands the complexities of planning and delivering large scale strategic sites and national infrastructure proposals? Are you looking for a new and interesting challenge working for a highly motivated team addressing the infrastructure challenges for new communities and large-scale development? This new role will be demanding yet wide ranging and rewarding.

We are seeking to deliver the best town planning principles alongside embedding new sustainable technologies to create environmentally social and sustainable places that are focused around the needs of people and communities rather than centred around primarily supporting vehicular movements. Thereby applying innovative planning and transport techniques so that new communities will enjoy a high quality of life and healthy environment, where sustainable transport is integrated into the vision, giving genuine individuals genuine choice of possible transport modes. This is a rare and exciting opportunity to be part of a new planning partnership approach between Essex County Council and Essex local authorities to deliver a well planned and designed settlements with strong policy response that puts health, community and inclusiveness first.

We are seeking a dynamic and experienced transport planner to join our growing and forward-thinking team of planners and transport planners to work on specific challenging residential, employment and infrastructure schemes, policies, and proposals and Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects. The post, working alongside principal planning officers, is located within the Growth and Infrastructure Team in the wider ECC Planning. Although this post is initially fixed for 5 years, there may well be opportunity for extension, dependent on budget and continuation of the long-term projects for the delivery of new garden communities and new settlements that this role would be leading on.

The postholder will be required to work closely with local planning authority teams in Essex. Working as part of the team, you would get involved in different projects at the earliest opportunity, providing a robust and co-ordinated response to growth challenges and opportunities as they arise. Excellent writing, project management, negotiation and communication skills are a must, especially as you will be dealing with detailed and complex issues with developers and other interested parties You will need to have good knowledge and understanding of traffic modelling methods and processes to provide oversight of consultants undertaking this work on behalf of local planning authorities.

Also being the key point of contact for specific site and proposals, this post will work alongside the manager and other principal planners within the Growth and Development team to co-ordinate and deliver a single corporate response to planning applications for major development proposals, garden communities and large scale nationally significant infrastructure projects for Essex County Council; as well as working alongside colleagues in the districts and boroughs to influence placemaking and placeshaping in development to ensure that the best schemes are delivered to create sustainable communities.

This is a real opportunity for the right person to shape and influence significant growth projects to ensure that they positively contribute to local and wider communities in the short, medium, and longer term.

Could this be you?

Skills, Knowledge and Experience

• Degree level education in related numerate, social science or humanities subject or equivalent experience; a Post Graduate qualification in Transport (MSc or Diploma) or equivalent experience is desirable.
• Evidence of continuing professional development and expert knowledge in relevant professional area.
• Significant post qualification experience in the field of land use and transport planning or civil engineering.
• Extensive knowledge of transport planning policy and practice including knowledge of the development plan system and planning legislation and the inter relationship between transportation and the development process.
• Demonstrable knowledge of managing the development and implementation of major schemes including statutory processes involved with these activities.
• Excellent written, verbal, listening and presentation skills to a variety of audiences including presenting information to elected Members at formal and informal level.
• Good understanding of town and country planning processes, major development proposals and highway and transportation major project implementation.
• Demonstrable understanding and experience in using project management methodologies.

For an informal chat with one of the team, please email your preferred contact details to [email protected] 

Please note that the job role requires you to be mobile throughout an operational area. Therefore, the post holder will need to have a driving licence and access to a vehicle, or the ability to meet the mobility requirements of the role through other means.

Why Essex? Essex County Council has a location to be proud of. Our 1,300 square miles stretch from Constable Country to the Thames Estuary, from the dynamic M11 corridor to the traditional seaside resorts of Clacton and Walton. England’s oldest town, Colchester, and two of its newest – Basildon and Harlow – are right here. Along with the City of Chelmsford, the county town, they form our major population centres. It means real choice and makes Essex the ideal place for your career.

Essex County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We’re committed to interview all disabled applicants who choose to apply under our Job Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum requirements of the job. Please speak to our Recruiters if you require any reasonable adjustments during the process.

We’re also committed to interview all veterans and care leavers, who meet the minimum requirements of the role for which they are applying.

As part of employment with Essex County Council (ECC) should your role require a DBS check you will be required to register with the DBS update service. The DBS update service ensures all registered DBS certificates are kept up to date and allows authorised parties to view the status of your certificate. This is an annual subscription, and you will be responsible for ensuring this is maintained. For further information on th