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Principal Conservation and Urban Design Officer

Grade 9 to 10, £40,156 - £49,250 (including local weighting) plus an additional £3,500 Market Supplement*
Full Time, 37 hours per week, permanent. Blended working available, Hertford. Closing date 24 May 2023 at 5pm.

This is a great opportunity to join an ambitious team of urban design, landscape, and conservation specialists delivering innovative approaches to the built environment alongside transformational growth. In an area steeped in history including over 3,000 listed buildings and 42 Conservation Areas, you’ll have the chance to contribute towards preserving and enhancing the area by ensuring that development proposals conserve heritage assets appropriately and by ensuring outstanding design in new developments.

East Herts is experiencing significant growth with a range of strategic sites being developed including a new 10,000 home settlement within the emerging ‘Harlow and Gilston Garden Town’, and we have a wide range of heritage asset types leading to plenty of interesting casework. This means your enthusiasm, expertise, creativity, and vision will not only impact the aesthetics of East Herts, but your knowledge will promote developments that lead to a more sustainable and inclusive society. So, if you’re looking to further your accomplishments and truly shape the future of a community through your expertise and foresight, this is the opportunity you’ve been waiting for.

With a thorough understanding of heritage conservation principles, policy, and practice, you will have excellent negotiation skills and the ability to present ideas and proposals clearly and effectively, with experience of providing conservation advice to officers, councillors, developers, and members of the public. You will actively participate in guidance and policy making and negotiate positive design changes as part of the development management process.

We are looking for an exceptional candidate to make a positive contribution to the team. You will have extensive experience of dealing with the conservation of the historic environment. You will provide proactive heritage and conservation advice as part of Planning Performance Agreements, pre-applications, planning and listed building consent applications, and work with colleagues across the Planning Service, Hertfordshire’s Design Review Panel, developers, agents, and communities to help deliver positive outcomes for East Herts. You will have a relevant post-graduate qualification, ideally full membership of the IHBC, and ideally experience of working in a similar role in a local planning authority context.
If you are an experienced heritage conservation professional, committed to best practice and driving excellence and can contribute positively to the work and culture of a growing and progressive team, then we want to hear from you.

• In line with their pay policy, EHC will review the application of the Market Supplement annually, and if warranted, will make adjustments in liaison with affected staff.

The Role

As the Principal Conservation and Urban Design Officer, you will manage the delivery of specialist conservation and planning advice to conserve heritage assets appropriately and to support and add value to high-quality developments in East Herts. Managing service delivery, you will provide clarity to pre-applications, masterplans and planning and listed building consent applications as well as guiding junior colleagues assessing applications. You will develop conservation guidance and policies and work closely with the Principal Urban Design Officer and the rest of the team to provide heritage advice for strategic sites and design codes, in order to enhance and conserve the natural and historic qualities of the area, whilst promoting sustainable development.

Additionally, you will:

• Provide advice on delivering renewable energy within projects
• Represent the Council at planning appeals, hearings and inquiries
• Develop content to engage the local community in conservation of the historic built environment
• Ensure project delivery within agreed timescales and budgets

About You
To be considered as the Principal Conservation and Urban Design Officer, you will need:

• Experience of developing conservation policy and guidance
• Experience of dealing with large-scale development proposals
• Experience of working within a customer-focused environment
• Experience of using graphical and design skills to communicate ideas and advice
• Demonstrable experience of working in partnership arrangements
• Experience of achieving excellent contemporary design within historic environments
• Knowledge of sustainable development and integration of renewable energy measures
• Knowledge of the planning system including planning policy, development management, design guides and codes
• Knowledge of conservation theory, tools and techniques
• A degree (or equivalent) in Architecture, History, Planning, or a relevant subject, and a relevant post-graduate qualification in Heritage Conservation or similar
• Full membership of a recognised professional body, such as the IHBC, or demonstrable eligibility for full membership
• A full, valid driving licence

Other organisations might call this role Principal Conservation Officer, Principal Heritage Officer, Principal Building Conservation Officer, or Senior Conservation Officer.
Webrecruit and East Herts Council are equal opportunities employers, value diversity and are strongly committed to providing equal employment opportunities for all employees and all applicants for employment. Equal opportunities are the only acceptable way to conduct business and we believe that the more inclusive our environments are, the better our work will be.
So, if you can help us to enhance the incredible historic environment of East Herts as our Principal Conservation and Urban Design Officer, please apply via the button shown. This vacancy is being advertised by Webrecruit. The services advertised by Webrecruit are those of an Employment Agency.