6 months contract with a Local Authority Job Summary: • To provide senior level scrutiny and accountability to the monitoring, collection and spend of developer obligations and contributions ensuring the council’s planning functions are positioned in a customer focused and solutions led way creating the right conditions for accelerating high-quality development and supporting sustainable growth in Swindon. • To build trust and confidence with external parish partners ensuring local infrastructure needs are recognised and brought forward (where appropriate) into borough wide strategic infrastructure delivery plans. The role will contribute to wider policy creation ensuring developer contributions and obligations are received in a flexible way to promote the widest possible application of these resources to meet the current and emerging needs of our residents. • Through your manager, support the Chief Planning Officer to unlock planning barriers and provide the appropriate policy context to support key regeneration projects, transform the town centre and support the councils emerging new ways of localities working. Key Duties/Accountabilities (Sample): • Through the completion of your day-to-day activities, you will strive to position planning services as the growth engine to unlock activity that contributes to the local economy through the delivery of new housing and strategically important economic development initiatives, including liaison with external agencies. • To manage, maintain, and develop systems for the administration, recording, collection, spending, monitoring, and reporting of CIL revenue and S106 financial and non-financial obligations. • To administer the Councils S106 policy, including validation and verification of forms; securing invoicing and payment of planning obligations; monitoring of development to ensure it accords with agreed liability; monitoring of spend and enforcement where necessary. • To fully utilise IT systems in the delivery and regular monitoring of an effective and efficient Community Infrastructure Levy and S106 agreement administrative service through appropriate IT and supplier liaison and employee training, whilst maintaining data integrity. • Preparation of monthly reports on monies raised, spend profiles, the projects for and outcomes of spend as well as the identification of the infrastructure and S106 items delivered. This will include regular reports/briefings for Committees and Cabinet Members • To provide and check accuracy and reliability of relevant information as part of the Authority Monitoring Report and Infrastructure Funding Statement and keep fully up to date with Government announcements and statements • Work closely with the Planning Policy Team to ensure alignment of infrastructure planning with planning policy documents and where necessary support the Council through public consultation(s) and examination in public on the Local plan and CIL Charging Schedule. • To co-ordinate cross-council stakeholders to ensure that competing funding requirements are managed and reflect corporate priorities. • Ensure that the culture, behaviours and shared values that make the Council successful are embedded across the service and create an effective and efficient working environment to deliver Council priorities and pledges. • To supervise junior planning officers, which will entail undertaking appraisals and regular 121s, to ensure that best value is achieved, and performance targets are attained, including assisting in the identification of training needs. • Supplementary Accountabilities • To be a lead technical officer on senior level aspects of the coordination of developer obligations, CIL and associated infrastructure. • To be commercially aware and recognise the impacts of your day-to-day work in unlocking and supporting development. • Embedding and maintaining rigour of key service performance indicators and planning outputs which exceed national and local targets. • Through your visibility as a senior lead, provide clear direction and a motivational and inspirational environment for teams and individuals to develop. • To lead on and deal with enquiries on CIL and S106 (monitoring) including from elected Members, the local community and representatives of development interests, and through Freedom of Information (FOI) requests. • To promote the Councils policies and procedures for good records management; ensure that all information related to the post and functional responsibilities is created, maintained, stored and retrieved in accordance with the Councils procedures and policies and legislative requirements. Skills/Experience: • Candidates must have substantial knowledge and experience in the following areas of business and will be required to provide evidence of this: • Proven understanding of the regulations and legislation relating to the CIL and Section 106 processes and demonstratable experience of effectively collecting, monitoring and administering spend of developer obligations and contributions. • Experience of senior level policy creation to achieve successful outcomes within a Local Authority environment. • A thorough knowledge of UK planning legislation, policy and guidance with an ability to apply this practically and progressively to deliver tangible planning gains. • ICT and financial literate to include use of MS Office applications and finance software packages • Experience of supporting decision makers, including Councillors and statutory consultees and strategic partner organisations to achieve positive outcomes • Experience of working with existing, new and emerging statute and using statutory processes innovatively to deliver proactive and good growth outcomes for our residents. • Educated to degree level or equivalent qualification with relevant post graduate experience. • (Postgraduate MA or Diploma in Town Planning is desirable but not essential) • Membership (or eligibility for membership) of the RTPI/CFA is desirable but not essential. • Decision Making • The postholder must take effective decisions quickly and act on their own initiative to resolve problems. • The postholder must be able to quickly get to the heart of issues and accurately assess and manage risk commensurate to the scope of their post. • Through developing, reviewing and implementing the Local Plan (and its evidence base) the postholder must ensure decisions taken are logical and based on the defined needs of the community ensuring both short- and long-term needs are planned for. • Creativity and Innovation. • The post-holder is expected to contribute to the continual review of the planning function and promote innovative methods of solving existing problems and creating new opportunities to improve the service. • Supports creative solutions to Council-wide issues and takes action to implement them. • Shows creativity in using resources to deliver cost effective services, engaging external experts • where relevant and looking beyond the boundary of current service delivery. Additional Information: • The closing date: 10/02/25.