Planning Officer

Human Resources & Development - Form 35a Version 16 - Issued June 2026 JOB DESCRIPTION AND PARTICULARS OF APPOINTMENT ▪ Job Title: Planning Officer ▪ Post Number: P12117 ▪ Grade and SCP: Grade 10, SCP 26-28 ▪ Directorate: Place Shaping Where your role fits at Shropshire Council At Shropshire our priority is to be a 'best value' authority that delivers, enables, and influences for Shropshire and its residents by:  • Being financially stable and sustainable  • Having clear priorities and purpose  • Supporting and enabling our workforce to excel  Recognising the challenge across local government today.  This starts with our Improvement Plan to address immediate challenges, while ensuring a focus on the future and how the Council will need to look, feel, and operate to best serve the needs of the county and its residents, and being aware of changes in national policy.     Our Shropshire values: PROUD  • Partnerships   • Respect   • Opportunities   • Understanding   • can Do   Aim to unify the workforce, support transformation, improve trust, and build a modern, sustainable Council. As a member of the North Area Development Management Team within Planning and Development Services, you will support the achievement of these key priorities, making a real difference to the lives of people in Shropshire. As one of the largest Local Planning Authorities in England, the Development Management team at Shropshire Council is committed to delivering an efficient, effective and consistent planning service across the county as a whole. The number of planning and associated applications is over 5000 each year, ranging in size from large urban extensions to small scale agricultural buildings and domestic extensions. There are opportunities to get involved in the full range of development management, including both district and county matters and to influence development through planning performance agreements. The geographic area of the county is huge and the range of local environments and demographics within it reflect this, including Green Belt, National Landscapes and two World Heritage sites The challenge for the team moving forward is to continue to be high performing whilst also constantly looking at ways to improve and evolve, and the postholder will play an important role in this ambition. Overview of your role ▪ You will provide professional and technical advice on all planning matters. ▪ Having the ability and freedom to choose your own workload from the variety of applications across the county you will deal with pre application, application and post application matters. ▪ You will work with our stakeholders, including members, customers, agents and applicants to ensure good development which is sustainable and meets the needs of present and future residents. Who will your manager be and what will you be responsible for? You will be: ▪ ▪ reporting to one of our principal planning officers who is in turn responsible for your health and safety, training and development. -expected to lead and/or contribute to a range of projects and build relations with both internal and external partners in order achieve specified outcomes. ▪ Responsible for preparing responses in line with Shropshire Council's corporate processes and national/regulatory/statutory processes (e.g. complaints, MP enquiries, Information Governance requests, customer enquiries, media enquiries, HR staff investigations etc..). These responses should be in line with the quality and timescale expectations set out within Shropshire Council's published procedures and/or case allocation emails and discussions. ▪ Responsible for completing within expected timescales all mandatory corporate and role specific training. Training requirements will be detailed in your corporate induction and Performance Development Review (PDR). Courses are accessed via the council Learning Management System via the Intranet. What will you be doing? ▪ Case management of planning and associated applications submitted to the Council under the Town and Country Planning Acts and associated legislation, including evaluation of submissions, liaison with consultees, preparation of reports with recommendations for delegated or committee decisions. ▪ Contributing to the provision of an integrated development management service, including pre-application advice and liaising with other services in order to achieve sustainable development. ▪ Inputting data and operating the development management and information management IT systems as appropriate. ▪ Attending site liaison meetings as appropriate. ▪ Attending court hearings, planning appeals, committee and site meetings as appropriate. ▪ Providing technical advice and support to the Enforcement team on planning matters. ▪ The above duties are an illustrative outline and are not an exhaustive list. You will be expected to become involved in a range of work to enable the service to respond effectively to the changing requirements of the Council and changes affecting the workforce. What we expect of you You will: ▪ adopt a customer focused approach when delivering your service, ensuring engagement with service users and maintenance of an appropriate personal profile, ▪ act as an advocate for your service and work collaboratively with colleagues across the whole Council to meet the needs of the people of Shropshire, ▪ meet individual, service and personal development targets agreed through the Performance Development Review Process, learn from experience and are committed to continuous improvement individually and as an employee of the Council, ▪ work with colleagues to meet your team's key performance indicators, support a culture of team working and ensure the team functions successfully in support of the Council's corporate and service objectives. ▪ meet the behaviours and competencies adopted by the Council in the way in which they achieve their objectives and carry out their work. ▪ A priority for the Council is the protection of vulnerable people, ensuring they are able to live as independently as possible. The post-holder will promote and engage with Council's responsibility to safeguard the welfare of children, young people and adults, and protect their right to be safe from harm. ▪ Case management of planning and associated applications submitted to the Council under the Town and Country Planning Acts and associated legislation, including evaluation of submissions, liaison with consultees, preparation of reports with recommendations for delegated or committee decisions. ▪ Contributing to the provision of an integrated development management service, including pre-application advice and liaising with other services in order to achieve sustainable development. ▪ Inputting data and operating the development management and information management IT systems as appropriate. ▪ Attending site liaison meetings as appropriate. ▪ Attending court hearings, planning appeals, committee and site meetings as appropriate. ▪ Providing technical advice and support to the Enforcement team on planning matters. ▪ The above duties are an illustrative outline and are not an exhaustive list. You will be expected to become involved in a range of work to enable the service to respond effectively to the changing requirements of the Council and changes affecting the workforce. What are your conditions of Service The conditions of service are those laid down by Shropshire Council, which have been adopted and amended as necessary from those laid down by the National Joint Council for Local Government Services. Your primary work base will be at The Guildhall, Frankwell Quay, Shrewsbury, SY3 8HQ with the requirement to regularly work from home. Your post is subject to the following: ▪ The post is permanent, for 37 hours per week, ▪ Normal office hours are 7am to 6pm Monday - Friday and 8am -1pm Saturday with a minimum lunch break of 30 minutes. ▪ The post is subject to the Council's annualised hours scheme as implemented within the specific work area. Annual leave entitlement is a pro rata flat rate scheme of 207 hours (28 days) annual leave plus bank holidays, with five days extra awarded to those staff with five years local government service giving an entitlement of 244 hours (33 days). Two days of an employee's allowance (pro rota for part time staff) must be taken at Christmas for any potential Christmas closures. Employees who work in a building/service which is required to open over the Christmas period, the two days leave (pro rota) can be carried over into your next leave year but must be used by the end of March. The appointment is subject to two months' notice in writing on either side. The appointment is subject to six months' satisfactory probationary service during which time the notice period will be one week on either side. Smoking is not allowed in Council buildings, in Council vehicles or in any Council place of work. It is a condition of your appointment that you provide a suitable vehicle for the performance of your duties and that this is readily available for use during normal working hours. You are entitled to claim for reimbursement of the costs of travel on council business at the rate of 55 pence per mile. What pre-employment checks will we undertake? The appointment is subject to receipt of the following pre-employment checks; 1. Satisfactory employment references, 2. Medical report, 3. Evidence of the qualifications required for the post/listed on your application form, All applicants who are appointed to this post will be subject to a Basic Disclosure check once the appointment is confirmed. This check will include details of any unspent convictions under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. Supplying false information or failing to disclose relevant information could ...