Principal Planning Officer
Team: Minerals and Waste
Job Family: Enabling CBG13
Salary: £51,471 - £55,585 per annum pro rata + £3,000 Annual Market Rate Supplement per annum pro rata
Hours: Full-time, 37 hours per week
Base Location:
You will be expected to attend a CBC office location as often as needed to carry out your role, which will be no less than once per month.
The role will also require occasional travel to Mineral and Waste sites across Bedfordshire.
Contract Type: Hybrid - Permanent
Closing Date: Friday 12th September 2025
Interview Date: TBC
About Us:
Central Bedfordshire is an ambitious authority, determined to be an exemplary one. Our strategic location and high quality of life mean we are one of the fastest growing areas in the country.
As a council we face the same challenges every business does - investing in the right places and delivering great results. Except for us, it’s all about our 289,000 residents. We’re totally focussed on helping to improve their lives and making Central Bedfordshire a great place to live and work.
This is a great time to join us on our journey.
More about the role:
There’s more than one reason why we believe Central Bedfordshire is a great place to live and work. Our attractive market towns and beautiful villages surrounded by stunning countryside, all boosted by a prime location, great transport links and a high performing economy are all part of what makes us great.
What we do isn’t just important – it’s essential. In our Minerals and Waste team, we work hard to enable Central Bedfordshire to grow and thrive in a sustainable way. This requires delivery of the minerals needed to support house building and other infrastructure projects to help generate the economic growth and opportunity our communities rely on whilst also protecting and nurturing our vital natural environment. We want to make our area a great place to live and work, and somewhere companies choose to invest. Working in a Unitary Authority environment, we work closely with mainstream planning officers and as a shared service, we provide specialist minerals and waste planning advice to both Bedford Borough Council and Luton Borough Council.
As a Principal Planner you will play a big part in achieving our vision. With businesses and communities depending on your experience and skills. You will find your greatness using your professional expertise to deliver timely decisions on planning applications. You will be able to use your skills to meet challenging targets in a fast-paced environment whilst also being on hand to provide support and mentoring to colleagues within the Minerals and Waste Planning team.
You will be responsible for giving definitive specialist advice on behalf of the Council. It’s a varied and challenging role where you will take the lead in processing minor, major and complex mineral and waste management planning applications across our shared service.
Whilst the role will predominately be within the Development Management function you will also be required to support the monitoring and enforcement service as well as use your broad skill set to support the delivery of the new Minerals and Waste Local Plan. As an experienced planner this role therefore gives you a great chance to use your talent across a range of different and varied planning disciplines. Colleagues, residents, councillors and developers will be looking to you for specialist guidance, it’s vital that you understand and uphold best practice.
The role gives you the unique opportunity to act as a case officer for mineral and waste sites and therefore you will not only be responsible for processing planning applications but also have the opportunity to help maintain site compliance and deliver restoration requirements, therefore enabling you to play a huge part in the sustainability, nature recovery, climate and biodiversity agendas. Your work in this area will periodically require some travel to mineral and waste sites across Bedfordshire.
You will ideally have a degree (or equivalent qualification or experience) in Town Planning, be a member of the Royal Town Planning institute and have planning experience working on mineral and waste planning matters in a local authority and/or private practice.
With good political and commercial awareness, and strong communication skills, you will have a gift for influencing others and leading partnerships and be committed to evidence-based decision making.
Our Offer
We have a number of rewards and benefits available to our staff, to view these please visit our Rewards and Benefits page
Our aspiration is to be a truly flexible employer. We welcome discussion on location, hours and working pattern as part of the application process.
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You will be expected to demonstrate how you meet the key accountabilities and competencies in this Recruitment Pack.
Our Competency Framework and Qualification Guidance are to be read in conjunction with our Recruitment Pack.
For an informal discussion about this position, please contact: Bryn Walters, Minerals and Waste Planning Manager at: bryn.walters@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk or on 0300 300 6302
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To maintain a fair and consistent approach for applicants, it is Central Bedfordshire Council's policy to only consider applications made via our online application system and we therefore thank you for not submitting your application offline.
Our National Careers Service team offer a free monthly workshop covering CV writing and how to complete the statement sections of the Central Bedfordshire Council online application form. This MS Teams workshop is open to anyone from the UK and lasts around 1.5 hours. Please book your place here.
More information about this service can be found here: Support getting into work or learning | Central Bedfordshire Council