Planning Officer (Tree Officer)

Job Description

Place – Sustainable Development

Planning Officer (Tree Officer)
Waverley Court

Salary: £34,057 - £40,275
Hours: 36 per week

We’re looking for skilled and motivated Arboriculturist to join our team.

Edinburgh has a significant number of protected trees which play an important role in the heritage, climate adaptation and biodiversity of the City. Permission is required to do works to a tree protected by a Tree Preservation Orders (TPOs) or a tree within a conservation area. With approximately 180 TPOs and 50 conservation areas, we receive large numbers of tree applications, with over 1000 applications submitted last year.

To help deliver the objectives of National Planning Framework 4 and deal with the volume and complexity of these cases, we have made a number of improvements, including increasing resources, changing how we validate (check in) tree applications and updating our online information.

Working with other professionals, you will be an integral part of a supportive friendly team with a varied and interesting workload, providing significant arboricultural and landscape input into planning issues and maintaining contact with developers, planning officers and other key stakeholders. In particular, you will be responsible for tree management, statutory protection measures and providing technical advice on pre-application enquiries and planning applications across Edinburgh.

We are committed to creating a workplace culture where all our people feel valued, included and able to be their best at work, and we recognise the benefits that a diverse workforce with different values, beliefs, experience and backgrounds brings to us as an organisation.

Our Council priorities are to end poverty by 2030, become a net zero city, and enhance wellbeing and equalities for all. Our City Plan 2030 project sets out challenging aims on quality of place, resilience to climate change, 20-minute neighbourhoods, net zero development and more. We are Scotland’s busiest planning authority, handling over 3,000 applications a year in a city with internationally-valued built and natural heritage.

If successful, 2 references will be required.

We work in a hybrid environment under the Council’s new Working Flexibly guidance, which will see us using our modern open-plan offices in Edinburgh city centre, 5 minutes’ walk from Waverley Rail Station.

We're committed to creating a workplace culture where all our people feel valued, included and able to be their best at work, and we recognise the benefits that a diverse workforce with different values, beliefs, experience, and backgrounds brings to us as an organisation.

Our salary range typically reflects the initial starting salary and annually increases until it reaches the top of the range.  

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