Chartered Town Planner Apprentice

**Details**:
**Reference number**:

- 343800**Salary**:

- £30,253- A Civil Service Pension with an average employer contribution of 27%**Job grade**:

- Higher Executive Officer**Contract type**:

- Fixed term**Length of employment**:

- 36 months**Business area**:

- PINS - Operations**Type of role**:

- Planning**Working pattern**:

- Full-time**Number of jobs available**:

- 4Contents

Location

About the job

**Benefits**:
Things you need to know

Location
- Bristol, South West England, BS1 6PNAbout the job

**Job summary**:
The main part of the role is as an Appeal Planning Officer. You will conduct and make recommendations on small scale appeal casework (including undertaking site visits which will involve travel and some overnight stays). In addition, there will be opportunities to gain other professional experience across a wider range of work the Planning Inspectorate carries out.

The Planning Inspectorate has a long and proud history in ensuring a fair planning system for England. The work we do has a significant impact on people’s lives, the communities where they live and the economy.

We want our colleagues to be able to work more flexibly and more collaboratively, exploring new and innovative ways to improve the way we provide services.

For further information on the Planning Inspectorate, please see the information pack attached. You can also view our careers page at Civil Service Careers

**Job description**:
Are you someone who wants to learn and build your career? Do you like looking at things from different points of view, weighing up evidence and making decisions? Are you interested in the built environment and do you want to make better places where people can live, work and play? Are you committed and willing to study? Then this apprenticeship could be for you.

We are looking for people who want to gain academic and professional qualifications; can balance study with a professional workload; are highly self-motivated, self-reliant, able to work alone; willing to travel and are able to analyse and interpret evidence to produce concise and well-reasoned reports.

During term time a typical fortnight for our Chartered Town Planner Apprentices could look like this:
**Day 1: Prepare for your site visits**. Read all the written evidence. What are the main issues for this appeal? What factors are important for the appellant, the Council and any neighbours? What will you need to look at on site?

**Day 2: Site visits. **Travel to the sites (drive, get a bus, a train, walk, cycle or sometimes fly or get a ferry). Conduct the visits to put the written evidence in context. Sometimes you will meet the appellant or their representative. Enjoy getting to see a different part of the country. Find somewhere decent to get lunch.

**Day 3: Attend UWE. **Lectures, workshops, seminars. Learn from the teaching staff and your fellow students.

**Days 4-7: Write your recommendation reports**. **In the office, or at home. Review all the evidence and decide if you think the planning appeal should be allowed (and planning permission granted) or dismissed (and planning permission refused). Call me, or other Planning Inspectors, for advice. Write a well-reasoned recommendation in plain English. Respond to any feedback we give you.

**Day 8: Attend UWE again**. **Keep learning

**Day 9: Attend a team meeting, have a 1-1 with your manager and review upcoming cases**. **Discuss any relevant changes to legislation, policy or guidance and any interesting or unusual appeal cases that you have dealt with recently. Learn from Planning Inspectors and other professional colleagues.

Raise any questions or concerns. Do you need any additional support or training?

Review your upcoming cases. Have you got all the information you need? Book any travel for the site visits.

**Day 10: Write your recommendation reports**. **Keep writing

**Evenings and weekends**:Be prepared to do course work, carryout directed reading and crack on with your dissertation. Don’t do any Planning Inspectorate work. Take time to relax and have fun.

**Office Attendance**

**Person specification**:
**Essential Criteria
- Honours degree at 2.2 or above (ideally in geography, planning or a related discipline) or relevant professional experience of making independent decisions or recommendations gained in a profession relevant to the work of The Planning Inspectorate.
- Ability to reach well-reasoned conclusions derived from analysis of large volumes of information.
- Excellent time management skills to enable production of high-quality recommendations within defined timescales.
- Ability to write clearly, accurately and concisely in order to make logical, well-reasoned, evidence-based recommendations.
- Be comfortable interacting with, and gaining the confidence of, a wide range of people from all sorts of backgrounds and with different levels of experience of the planning system.
- Ability to learn quickly and to think for yourself.
- Willi