Southend on Sea City Council is a Unitary local authority, providing vital services to meet the needs of the local community. We employ around 1,800 staff who are working alongside our partners and local communities to deliver the city vision and make lives better for the people of Southend. We are a vibrant place to live and work, offering coastal living alongside excellent and fast transport links into London.

We have some 180,000 residents, with 7 miles of waterfront, an international airport, a university, and great transport links to London and surrounding areas. The Planning team achieves nationally leading application performance and has a history of dealing with high profile projects.

We are seeking an experienced and motivated Principal Planner to join our Planning team on an interim basis. This full‑time and interim role is for 6 months, offers a hybrid working pattern and presents an excellent opportunity for a senior planning professional to provide expert support during a key period for the service.

We are seeking an experienced, knowledgeable, and highly focused individual to act as the Principal Planner lead for the Council’s handling through to decision of a major outline planning application for a 2000 home residential development within the City’s green belt.

To be successful in the role, you will be a confident and experienced planning professional with strong technical knowledge, sound professional judgement, and excellent communication skills. You will be comfortable managing complex caseloads in an interim environment, working autonomously, and collaborating effectively with colleagues and external partners. You must have strong working knowledge of existing and emerging policy, very special circumstances assessment, environmental and green belt matters and have good experience of handling large scale residential planning applications and presenting to Planning Committees.  

You will have excellent analytical, organisational and report writing skills, operating proactively with minimum supervision and sound experience of working in or with multi-disciplinary teams.  You’ll have a robust understanding of political context, stakeholder dynamics and decision-making processes within local planning authorities. You need to have a strong track record of resolving conflict, negotiating pragmatic solutions, and maintaining effective relationships.

Your application will not be considered if you do not have a degree in planning.

If you are interested in this role, please click 'apply online' to forward an up-to-date copy of your CV.

Please note: Applications for this vacancy may close prior to the date advertised above so you are advised to apply as soon as you are able to.

The Council is an equal opportunities employer. We welcome applications, regardless of race, sex, disability, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, marital or civil partner status, pregnancy or maternity, age or religion or belief.