Conservation Officer

JOB DESCRIPTION

Organisation: London Borough of Waltham Forest

Directorate: Place

Grade: PO4/PO5

Salary: £47,532.00 - £53,607.00

Contract Type: Full-time, Permanent

Working hours per week: 36

Application Deadline: 21/04/2025

Proposed Interview Date(s): TBC

Reference:1677

About Us:

Bursting with culture, energy, and opportunity, the London Borough of Waltham Forest is a fantastic and exciting place to work.

We are a highly ambitious borough. Driven by culture and the innate creativity of our residents, we have developed new and innovative ways to build our communities. Our Council is relentlessly resident-focused, insight-led, digitally driven and commercially minded; a Council focused on meeting the needs of our existing and future residents.

London Borough of Waltham Forest is one of the Mayor of London's Good Work Standard employers. This accreditation is a proof of our commitment to creating a healthy, fair and inclusive workplace. This includes fair pay and conditions, workplace well-being, skills and progression and diversity and recruitment.

About the role:

We are looking for someone creative and energetic with demonstrable design skills; who is looking to build on and share those skills to work across teams and help unlock exemplar design across the whole development cycle, whilst ensuring the borough's built and social heritage is celebrated - from the production of conservation area appraisals, heritage policy and guidance at a variety of scales, and inputting to briefs, feasibility studies and masterplans, to the pre-application process and post permission oversight of conditions and quality review. With the team focused on the implementation of our ambitious adopted Local Plan, this role will be key to unlocking delivery of new homes, workspace and infrastructure across the borough. The right candidate will be excited about heritage and conservation, as well as architecture, urban design, sustainability, retrofit, landscape and biodiversity and the design and delivery of joyful places.

You will work well with others and have the ability to communicate ideas and proposals effectively and will enjoy taking a creative approach to problem solving.

In this role you will work alongside two Design and Conservation Officers, a Trees and Urban Greening Officer and Planning Policy Principal Officer and will report to the Design and Conservation Lead.

About the Place and Design Team:

We are delivering the Council's Missions for a fairer borough through inclusive growth, and ensuring that we deliver the new homes and jobs needed, and that they are of exemplar quality and supported by the right infrastructure in the right places. We are committed to engaging the borough's diverse communities at all stages of the development cycle to ensure that future development brings the benefits they need and tackles the Climate Emergency head on.

We work within an inclusive structure that rejects silos, embraces sharing and learning and works flexibly and collaboratively. We have adopted a matrix working approach that assembles the right teams for the right projects, building resilience and skills. We also work collaboratively with other teams across the council, including Development Management, Area Regeneration, Employment, Business and Skills, Culture and Desitnations, Housing, Property, Capital Delivery, Strategy & Design, and Highways and engage meaningfully with our local communities, businesses, strategic authorities (such as GLA, TfL, Historic England), investors and developers.

We are building a reputation as an innovative, positive, proactive team that delivers excellent results with work produced in house including an adopted Local Plan, award winning buildings and public spaces, our special Waltham Forest Design Awards, a visionary Leyton Mills SPD and a first class Local Heritage List.

Click here to download the Role Profile

Key Responsibilities:

See Role Profile

• To provide specialist expertise and guidance to officers, members, developers, the public and other stakeholders on all aspects of building conservation, listed buildings, design policy and practice in relation to development proposals and regeneration initiatives, and in the development and review of the Council's planning policies and other relevant documentation.
• To lead and have key responsibility for the preparation and monitoring of conservation area appraisals and management plans, advice notes and other conservation and listed building matters and related planning guidance for the Council and external use.
• Champion exemplar design in all conservation and heritage based proposals and projects. Promote the service as the go to place for quality advice on the built heritage.
• Balance the need for inclusive design and access for all with the preservation and enhancement of the historic built environment.
• Report on the achievements to Planning Committee and contribute to the training and development programme to upskill colleagues and Members.
• Prioritise climate resilient design as a core part of the design culture of the service focusing on utilising respective skills, such as landscape, sustainability, environmental enhancements, particularly building design and sustainable construction in heritage projects, and working flexibly with other colleagues and partners to play our part in the response to the Councils climate change activity.
• Continue to learn and develop these necessary skills through training, shared experience and learning and best practice.
• To represent the Service at officer group meetings, project meetings, committees, and public meetings, and with external strategic agencies (e.g., Historic England, GLA, Design Council etc) as necessary.
• To lead and have key responsibility for the implementation of appropriate conservation, listed building work and other related projects and programmes). and be responsible for the delivery of projects to agreed timescales and resources.
• To provide creative and specialist professional input and expertise on all matters in relation to the promotion of good conservation and design policy and practice, including contributing to the ongoing monitoring and review of service delivery and work practice.
• To manage a caseload ensuring quality advice is provided in a timely manner to Development Management, focusing primarily, but not exclusively, on applications within conservation areas and to listed buildings/heritage assets at all stages of the development process, from pre applications, applications, and consents to the approval of details and post decision activity including enforcement action
• To contribute to the preparation and monitoring of site specific masterplans and development/design briefs and developing other conservation, heritage and design projects and related planning guidance for the Council and external use.
• To take the lead and have key responsibility for all appropriate public consultations and engagements, liaison with external consultants, developers, external agencies, statutory bodies, and the public etc., to ensure the effective implementation of conservation, listed building projects and related design regeneration and environmental initiatives.
• Ensure high quality communication is maintained internally and externally with officers, elected members, and the public.
  

Qualifications and Requirements:

To be considered for this position, you should meet the following requirements:

• Degree/diploma in building conservation, urban design, architecture, planning or related subject with relevant experience.
• Membership of, or potential eligibility to join, the RTPI, IHBC, RIBA or other relevant professional body.

Experience

• Experience, knowledge and understanding of the National Planning Policy Framework, the London Plan and other relevant design, conservation and heritage policy and legislation.
• Substantial relevant experience of implementing conservation and related regeneration projects within a local authority, voluntary or private-sector context.
• Substantial experience of providing conservation, listed building, design and related planning advice to officers, members, planning applicants and the public.
• Experience of providing evidence for appeals, for example, informal hearings, public inquiries, mediation, and planning enforcement investigations.
• Experience of multi-disciplinary working within a local authority context.
• Experience of public involvement and consultation on planning/conservation/urban design/development issues.
• Strong awareness and detailed understanding of conservation/urban design principles, policy, and practice.
• Thorough knowledge of historic building repair and traditional construction techniques.
• Detailed knowledge of architectural history and its application to conservation practice.
• Thorough understanding of planning, conservation and listed building legislation and appreciation of related issues.
• Knowledge and experience of Adobe Creative Suite is preferable.

Terms and conditions:

The below terms and conditions apply to this role:

• Satisfactory employment references and CIFAS identity checks;
• Satisfactory declaration of interest;

As a public authority, we must ensure that members of staff in public-facing roles are able to speak fluent English. This means that they must have a command of spoken English, with confidence and accuracy, sufficient for the effective performance of their role. This requirement does not refer to any particular English language qualifications, regional or international accents, dialects, speech impediments or the tone of conversations. It does not require staff to speak only in English.

How to Apply:

Interested candidates are invited to submit their applications online by pressing the 'Apply' button below. This includes a supporting statement that outlines to us how your skills and experience make you a good candidate for this vacancy.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

Equal Opportunity Employer:

Waltham Forest is a diverse borough where diversity is valued and is integral to both, service delivery and employment of its staff. The Council is proud of its rich mix of communities and as the largest employer in the area, it works hard to respond to the changing needs of its population. We use our statutory duties on race, gender and disability equality and best practice in respect of age, faith and sexual orientation to ensure equality of opportunity in the workplace. The Council is committed to meeting its 4 equality objectives: - Promoting equality of opportunity - Opposing all forms of discrimination, intolerance and disadvantage - Ensuring our workforce reflects the diverse communities of Waltham Forest at all levels. - Providing fair, appropriate, accessible and excellent Services to all. Respecting Diversity is a core Council value.

To support the above and reduce the risk of bias in its recruitment activities, the council is operating an anonymous shortlisting process, which hides personal information that can identify individuals until their application has been considered for shortlisting. The council also operates a scheme whereby, for jobs graded up to and including scale SO2, internal candidates are considered first. This includes those candidates who self-identify as having a disability for the purposes of the Disability Confident scheme. For more information, please refer to our recruitment and selection policy.

We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below or feel free to discuss this during your interview.

For more information on the benefits of working for the Council, please visit https://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/jobs-and-training/find-jobs-and-other-opportunities/working-us.

Contact Information:

If you have any questions about this vacancy or the application process, please contact Conor Keappock at conor.keappock@walthamforest.gov.uk

If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post, please contact our Recruitment Team via email at recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk.

The Council's preference is for online application. However, if you have a disability and are unable to complete an online application, please email recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk so we can arrange an alternative application method.

Click here for further information on the Human Resources recruitment privacy notice.