Neighbourhood Planning Assistant

Overview

We’re looking for a motivated and well-organised individual to support our Neighbourhood Planning Co-ordinator in delivering neighbourhood plans across Buckinghamshire.

If you enjoy working with town and parish councils, have a keen interest in planning, and bring strong administrative and organisational skills, this could be the perfect opportunity for you. As a Neighbourhood Planning Assistant, you’ll play a key role in shaping the future of our communities—helping to ensure Buckinghamshire remains a great place to live, work, and thrive.

About us

Buckinghamshire Council is a relatively new organisation that combines the strengths and expertise of the previous five councils in the county to create positive change for local people, communities, and businesses. We are firmly focused on the future and have made a clear commitment to serve residents better and to provide stronger representation for Buckinghamshire, both locally and nationally. 

The Planning Policy team sits within the newly established Spatial Planning & Climate Resilience service area, part of the wider Planning, Growth and Sustainability directorate.

This directorate leads on planning, economic growth, regeneration, strategic infrastructure, transport, and property—working closely with partners to shape the future of Buckinghamshire.

We’re currently in the early stages of preparing a new Local Plan for Buckinghamshire, and our team is actively supporting a growing number of town and parish councils in developing their own neighbourhood plans.

About the role

As an administrator with good organisational and technical skills and an interest in working on neighbourhood planning, you will support the Council’s Neighbourhood Planning Co-ordinator, making sure we do the right things at the right time as well as assisting with the support and advice provided to Town and Parish councils and Neighbourhood Forums.

This will involve dealing with a work flow of all the plans and the stages they are at, as well as co-ordinating the input of other teams, answering queries, updating databases and helping to organise training events. You may also help with some Local Plan related tasks. We want to play to your strengths but also provide the opportunity for you to develop and broaden your skills and experience, and we will provide the right support to help you do that.

Fixed

As a ‘fixed’ worker, you’ll spend most of your time in the same location, which will likely be a fixed office or location where your role is performed. Typically, you’ll be based in the same location as the rest of your team, because you provide a particular service from that fixed location or need access to information there.

About you

You will have excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with a high level of personal organisation and excellent technical and project management skills and ideally an awareness of neighbourhood planning and general planning policy.  You will need to be able to prioritise work and adjust those priorities when needed. You will have experience of working in an office environment and ideally you will have a degree, but this is not essential. 

Other information

This is a FTC/Secondment until 31.03.2027

This post is covered by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore applicants are required to declare:

• All unspent cautions and/or unspent convictions

For further information on how long it takes for cautions and convictions cautions to become spent, please refer to our guide on the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (updated 2023) | Nacro

We reserve the right to close the vacancy once we have received sufficient applications, so please be advised to submit your application as early as possible.

Our values and culture

We have a set of values, which our employees have chosen, that represent what we are – Proud, Ambitious, Collaborative and Trustworthy.

By joining Buckinghamshire Council, you can expect:

• a fair and inclusive culture
• the chance to really make a difference to those around you
• health and well-being initiatives including an Employee Assistance Programme, Mental Health First Aiders and mindfulness workshops
• a unified voice through our Employee Representative Group
• ongoing support, and the opportunity to develop and progress in your career with us
• opportunities to take part in fun activities such as fundraising and social events

At Buckinghamshire Council, we know that our biggest strength comes from the people that work for us, and that’s why we’re working hard to ensure we continue to be an accessible and inclusive organisation.

From dedicated staff networks overseen by our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Steering Group, to proudly standing as a Disability Confident employer, it’s important to us that all our colleagues feel engaged, listened to, and valued. Our offer of flexible working empowers a productive and happy workforce and allows employees to combine work with other responsibilities and commitments.

We believe our workforce should reflect the diverse communities we service in Buckinghamshire, and are looking for like-minded individuals to join us in promoting equality, fairness, and inclusion for everyone.

About the Business Unit

Our Communities directorate works across the county to deliver a number of the key customer-facing services that our residents, businesses and visitors rely on every day. 

This directorate includes a wide range of services, including:

• collecting and disposing of waste and recycling
• maintaining our roads and Rights of Way network and parking
• ensuring the delivery of school transport, and supporting sustainable travel including public bus services and School Crossing Patrollers
• managing Country Parks
• leisure facilities, museums, theatres and libraries, as well as developing our Cultural Strategy
• Licensing, Environmental Health and Trading Standards
• Cemeteries and Crematoria

The customer is central to how we develop and deliver all of these services, which help promote our rich and vibrant culture and special environment. 

We are looking for enthusiastic, ambitious and committed individuals to join our team and help us to continue to make Buckinghamshire a great place to live, work and visit. This is an exciting time for us as we bring together the services previously run by five separate councils before Buckinghamshire Council was created. Whilst making major changes to contracts affecting residents across Bucks, we continue to focus on delivering great customer service. You will join us on our journey of continuous improvement - whether that’s through developing strategies and ways of working or delivering services on the ground, every person in Communities is a valued member of the team.

We recognise and reward you

Hard work and success deserves recognition. That’s why we pride ourselves on the benefits we give our people. We actively encourage a good work-life balance and promote flexible and agile working arrangements. We provide discounts on various Cafés, restaurants, shops and auto enrolment onto our generous Pension Scheme. In addition to the opportunity to gain membership to Costco, we have discounted gym memberships, travel discounts with Arriva and much more.

https://jobs.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/working-buckinghamshire-council/