Principal Planner – Team Leader

• Principal_Planning_Officer___Team_Leader_-_Job_Description

Closing date: 13 July 2025
Interview date: Week commencing 21 July 2025

Please apply via Winchester City Council's website or send your CV and covering letter to hrrecruitment@winchester.gov.uk.

Are you an experienced Town Planner looking for a new challenge?

Winchester City Council has an exciting career opportunity for a Principal Planner - Team Leader within its Planning Department. This is a key role in ensuring our service remains high quality and efficient. We are seeking an enthusiastic Officer to join our skilled Planning Development Management Service and help shape our charming city, historic towns, villages and countryside. Our emerging Local Plan is ambitious and focussed on meeting the challenge of climate change.

Winchester is a unique place. A place of history and heritage that today is home to a vibrant and diverse cultural scene, a strong local economy, and is set within a beautiful landscape with 40% of the district inside the South Downs National Park. It’s a destination that attracts visitors from across the world. It should come as no surprise that it’s a place where expectations and ambitions are high. That’s what makes these roles such an exciting professional opportunity.

The Role

We are seeking an ambitious individual who will act as a Development Management Team Leader as well as being the case officer for key major and complex planning applications.

There’s plenty going on in our district for you to get involved in and to further your career; major regeneration projects, meeting the growing demand for housing and employment with ambitious environmental targets - all set within the context of a place that’s world famous for its heritage and history. Our residents are rightly protective of the unique character of our district and committed stakeholder engagement will be central to success in this role.

The successful candidate will be a Chartered Member of the RTPI, well established in their career and already working at a principal planner level. Ideally, they will have some experience of Management in a Local Planning Authority and will have been responsible for a variety of major and minor developments, overseeing them through from the concept stage to implementation.

The successful candidate will work with the Service Lead: Built Environment to mentor and coach a highly motivated team. Together they will play a key role in delivering the objectives set out in the Service Plan for the Built Environment as well as those in the adopted and emerging Local Plan. Delivery is being achieved through following a customer focussed, high quality planning service approach, ensuring that we are resilient to the changing planning and local government environment.

What is important to us in appointing to this post is getting the right fit to work proactively and collaboratively with the team members, developers and customers.

What Winchester Offers

Our offices are based in the heart of Winchester’s Historic Cathedral City. Winchester and our market towns have a wealth of beautiful historic and contemporary developments, and we have a reputation for facilitating high quality planning outcomes in this context by working collaboratively with stakeholders and the community.

Successful candidates for these posts will benefit from:

• Employer paid health cash plan
• Cycle to Work and Car Benefit salary sacrifice schemes
• Competitive annual leave; up to 13 days additional flexi leave per year
• Flexible working arrangements
• Option to buy up to 5 days additional annual leave
• Free parking
• Membership of the Local Government Pension Scheme
• Discounted membership at the two leisure centres in the district
• Confidential Employee Advice and Support Programme
• Employee retail and shopping discounts
• Season Ticket Loans
• Excellent working environment
• Support for continuous professional development

Please note: previous applicants for this role need not re-apply.

If you are interested in working for Winchester City Council, please contact Simon Avery, Principal Planning Officer – Team Leader North on 01962 848572 or Lorna Hutchings, Service Lead: Built Environment on 01962 848290 for an informal chat about the roles available.