Grade: F 

Salary: £27,709 - £30,023 per annum
Vacancy Hours: 37 per week  
Contract Type: Fixed Term (1x end date 31st March 2027, 1x end date December 2027)

Location: Harrogate, North Yorkshire



We are looking for Planning Assistants, who will work within a team to provide a range of specialist services across the whole of the Planning Service. These temporary positions are to help bolster the team whilst we deliver the latter stages of a project, bringing our planning systems onto one platform.

They offer more than just valuable work experience. As one of the largest planning services in England, we regularly create opportunities for progression within our teams. Successful candidates will gain exposure to a wide range of planning functions and develop the knowledge and skills that can support future applications for permanent positions, including Planning Assistant, Senior Planning Assistant and career-grade Planning Officer roles, as well as opportunities across the wider Council.

Our Service

The Council’s Planning Services play a fundamental role in managing the natural and built environment, ensuring that the future development needs of the county can be accommodated to make it a better place in which to live and work. It is one of the largest planning functions in the country covering one of the largest geographical areas including national parks, areas of outstanding natural beauty, to small market town and large urban areas.

The Operations team are responsible for many technical aspects of case processing across the range of responsibilities within the Planning Service – including Development Management, Building Control, Policy & Place, Infrastructure and Delivery, Land Charges, Street Naming & Numbering, data management, system use.       

The role

Planning Assistants play a vital role in supporting the work of the Planning service.

You will work within a team providing a wide range of specialist technical services across the whole of the Planning service, to ensure efficient, effective and compliant service delivery. You will undertake work across a diverse range of back office and ‘front of house’ services within a busy customer-facing environment.  

Some of the tasks that a Planning Assistant would be expected to carry out include:

• Registering and validation of Planning and Building Control applications and notifications including Appeals.
• Process associated tasks connected to the Planning and Building Control applications, process reports, notices and decisions when issued by Officers.
• Assist the Street Naming and Numbering team
• Process Enforcement Cases including Appeals.
• Process Tree Preservation Order Requests
• Assist in the processing and completion of Official Land Charge Searches.
• Administration of Planning Committee process.
• Deal with enquiries by telephone, email or post in a timely manner.
• Use a Document Management System. 

Full training will be provided, usually in person at the locality office. Therefore, some travelling may be expected.  

What you will bring

You should be an effective communicator, with strong IT skills, be accurate, meticulous and customer focussed. You should be able to demonstrate that you have familiarity of working in a team environment, the ability to relate well to customers at all levels and effective organisational skills and time management when working to deadlines. You will be expected to be reliable, resilient and able to work under pressure, often using your own initiative.

For any further information about this role please contact: Joanne Bosher at Joanne.Bosher@northyorks.gov.uk

Key Dates:

Closing Date: 6^th November 2026

Interview Date: TBC  
Venue for Interview: Harrogate Civic Centre, HG1 2AE  

Key Documents:

NYC are committed to directly recruiting staff and will not accept applications nor services from agency suppliers in respect of our vacancies.

North Yorkshire Councils’ purpose is to deliver services and facilities to the diverse residents and visitors of North Yorkshire. To ensure we deliver inclusive services we strive to have a diverse workforce where everybody can be themselves by respecting differences and embedding equality of opportunity. We celebrate diversity and recognise each other’s contributions; we therefore welcome applications from individuals of all backgrounds.

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