Principal Planning Officer (Development Management)

Closing in 26 days (16 March, 2025) Job details

Salary: £50,000 per annum (this includes a remuneration package of £2,246 per annum for up to 3 years)

Department: Planning and Transport

Working pattern: Full Time

Location: Somerset

About the job

As a Principal Officer, you would be assessing and determining a range of major applications including Residential, Commercial, Allocated sites and managing Planning Performance Agreements to provide for the 18,000 homes allocated in the Local Plan.

You will lead a small area team within Somerset and carry a caseload of major applications. Due to the need to undertake site visits, you will need to be in the office 1-2 days a week with the option for home working the rest of the time.

This role provides 33 days of annual leave. As a developing service, you would be in a position to inform and develop process improvements.

You would also manage a small team of Planners and Senior Planners (4-7 people), providing support through one-on-ones and team meetings. Within each area of Somerset, there are 2-3 Principal Officers enabling peer support.

The scale of the authority is significant, as is the skill set of the existing team and the variety of surrounding development management experience.

We have a huge breadth of work, including:

1. Local Development Orders
2. Development Consent Orders
3. Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects
4. Major residential and Commercial developments
5. Our Emerging Local Plan

We also have a successful history of gaining Levelling Up and Homes England funding, which means there will be a range of new projects to work on in the coming years.

You will be directly managed by one of the two area leads who will oversee Planning and be supported by the Planning Service Manager in delivering a high-quality and improvement-driven service.

As the second largest and newly formed Unitary, we are actively leading on improvement projects throughout the service and engaging with staff to influence outcomes.

About you

We are looking for qualified planners with experience of determining and negotiating on complex caseloads within a Local Authority environment. You need to be or be eligible to become a Chartered Planner. If you are not already Chartered, this will be encouraged for your development once in the role.

Management experience is ideal, but if you're a Senior Planner ready to step up, we'll support your development into a Principal role.

We welcome applications from a diverse range of backgrounds and experiences to enrich our team. The ability to shape the future enforcement service for Somerset within a supportive and rewarding environment is essential.

We offer a variety of training and development opportunities, with supportive management. We promote a healthy work-life balance and offer flexible working arrangements wherever possible, including working from home.

Additional employee benefits include:

1. Generous annual leave allowance, with the opportunity to purchase additional leave
2. Staff discounts in gyms
3. Employee Assistance and various wellbeing services
4. Auto enrolment onto our generous Pension Scheme
5. A Flexible Benefits Scheme via salary sacrifice
6. My Staff Shop offering discounts in shops, online shopping, restaurants, cinema tickets, insurance benefits and more

Additional information

The Salary for the Principal Planning Officer role is Grade 8, £50,000 per annum, including a remuneration package of £2,246 per annum for up to 3 years.

For an informal chat about the role, you can contact Gary Collins via email at or Thomas Jones at

Interviews will be held between March 26th - 28th, 2025.

When completing your application/CV, please provide your full employment history and ensure that any gaps in employment are explained. Please start with your current or most recent employment.

If you have everything you need, just hit the apply button. We can't wait to hear from you.