Infrastructure Planning Lead - Recycling and Waste

Fixed Term / Secondment, 18 months

Full Time, 37 hours per week

£42,330 to £49,800 per annum

Location: Chelmsford

Working Style: Anywhere worker

Closing Date: Tuesday 27th August (23:59)

The Infrastructure Planning Lead is a challenging and exciting role with responsibility for leading and developing an approach and process based on evidence and a waste policy position for obtaining developer contributions for capital investment in community waste infrastructure to facilitate sustainable growth.

Working with key stakeholders, the Infrastructure Planning Lead will use best practice and evidence, to develop a new planning policy position and supplementary guidance that will inform the future design of housing developments in Essex, and secure S106 infrastructure funding and inform district councils partners of where new waste sites are needed, aligning with the Waste Strategy for Essex. The role will be responsible for securing developer contributions through robust application of policy and guidance and strong commercial negotiation to ensure waste infrastructure can be developed to align with housing growth. This role will take the lead on planning policy and development management matters for the Waste Service, to secure a pipeline of developer contributions, identify opportunities to maximise the value of contributions, and ensure that the delivery of capital projects is in line with the agreements.

The lead will be crucial to implementing projects with a proven ability to assimilate, interpret and convey technical and sector information through persuasive communications and development of business case content for Community Infrastructure Levy and other sources of developer contributions.

Accountabilities

· Responsible for developing refreshed Waste Service content, in line with the waste partnership's vision and ambition, and able to translate into key policy documents that will guide housing development and secure maximum available infrastructure contributions in Essex.

· Responsible for designing and maintaining key processes, in partnership with Waste Operations, Planning Officers and others, to establish a pipeline of waste infrastructure projects for securing contributions.

· Responsible for assessing the waste infrastructure contributions from housing developments through the planning application process and working with key colleagues to develop costed submissions on behalf of the Waste Service that are appropriate and tailored to the scale of the development. Develop toolkits and systems to ensure processes are efficient and effective and align with the Essex Developers Contribution Guide.

· Responsible for responding to developer and local planning authority queries and developing response to challenges to submissions in a timely way that aligns with local policy and articulates a clear business case for requiring developer contributions.

· Responsible for tracking and monitoring developer agreements for the Waste Service and ensuring contributions received are spent in accordance with ECC's duties under relevant legal agreements/legislation with a clear audit trail of spending.

· Responsible for financial management of capital expenditure in partnership with corporate finance and waste operations, including profiling of when spend is likely to be incurred and, where appropriate, pooling of contributions.

· Develop and lead relationships across structural boundaries with key stakeholders and delivery teams, both internally and externally.

· Provide subject matter expertise, undertake research and benchmarking to ensure that maximum benefits of infrastructure contributions are realised.

· Responsible for developing, submitting and managing planning applications on behalf of the Waste Service in line with the requirements of the service, planning policy and regulation.

· Specific individual and shared targets and objectives are defined annually within the performance management framework.

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

· Educated to degree level or equivalent by experience.

· Evidence of continuing professional development and broad knowledge of town planning and infrastructure policy and regulation.

· Evidence of strong commercial skills and experience of negotiation, with good knowledge and understanding of governance procedures and legal agreements.

· Experience of working at a senior level in a political environment, able to build strong partnerships and take a cross organisational and cross partner perspective.

· Experience of identifying and maintaining a pipeline of infrastructure and operational improvement projects.

· Experience of advising and influencing senior decision makers and other stakeholders with credibility. Excellent presentation and report writing skills to convey complex information and ideas to diverse audiences and gain support.

· Experience of working in a programme and project environment (desirable), with evidence of budgetary control and financial management across capital budgets.

· Proven ability to interpret data and insight to monitor progress, suggest future policy and set priorities. Able to develop business cases and plans to secure resources for project delivery.

To read more about us please visit Climate, Environment and Customer Services

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. Read more about us.

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 the DBS update service please go to https://www.gov.uk/dbs-update-service

Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.

If you have queries on this role or require anything further, please email resourcing.team@essex.gov.uk

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