Here at Letchworth Heritage Foundation, we have a vision to make Letchworth, the world’s first Garden City, a great place for everyone to live, work and visit!
We work tirelessly to manage our local property portfolio to generate income which we invest back into the community and landscape of Letchworth Garden City. Whether it is managing our portfolio, servicing our customers at our venues or providing heritage advice all our teams play an integral part in our amazing journey and now is a really exciting opportunity to be part of our incredible journey.
Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation owns the freehold of the Letchworth Garden City Estate and is the successor body to First Garden City Limited that developed the world’s first garden city.
As part of its stewardship role, the Heritage Foundation administers a Scheme of Management, which along with residential leases, requires prior approval for external alterations, changes of use and tree/hedge removal on the greater proportion of homes in Letchworth.
We are looking for Design Development Officers to assist with the determination of circa 1000 applications and pre-applications submitted each year to the Heritage Advice Service, which is a small but dedicated team that processes these applications, as well as dealing with appeals and referrals, enforcement matters and business licenses.
The application process is separate from the statutory planning process, with the scope of permission exceeding those of the local planning authority and is based on a set of Design Principles, formulated to help preserve the special characteristics of the Garden City.
As well as undertaking site visits and making recommendations on applications, the role will necessitate discussion and negotiation with homeowners and their representatives and attending meetings with the Heritage Foundation’s internal committee structure.
More information on our application process and the Design Principles can be found at: https://www.letchworth.com/your-home
We are seeking individuals with skills and experience in planning, architecture or conservation and a proactive approach to problem solving.
Essential:
- A minimum of 3 years’ experience of building design or determining applications for approval.
- Good IT skills including MS Office (Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel).
- Experience of discussion and negotiation with members of the public and architects regarding development proposals.
Preferable:
- A qualification in town planning, architecture, conservation or building design at degree level or higher
