The Role of Assistant Planner

The role of the Planning Department is to guide and shape the future development of County Louth. The Department is committed to realising our vision for a county where people will choose to live, work, visit and invest, both socially and economically for the benefit of the county, region, and the country as a whole.

The Assistant Planner is responsible for working as part of a multi-disciplinary team implementing programmes of work in the Planning Department and for providing a range of planning and related services.

Assistant Planner positions are multi-faceted and may include some or all of the following areas:

• Forward Planning
• Development Management
• Planning Enforcement
• Public Realm/Strategic Projects

Key Responsibilities

The Assistant Planner role and responsibilities include but are not limited to the following:

• Assessment and making of recommendations on a wide and varied planning application caseload of both urban and rural developments, including Strategic Housing Developments (SHD), as required in line with all relevant national, regional and local plans/policies, and in accordance with the appropriate legislation and guidelines as required.

• Conducting of pre-application consultations and provision of planning advice to member of the public, internal departments and to the elected member in an efficient and flexible manner.
• Prepare County Development Plan, local area plans, planning schemes and other planning policy related reports as required.
• Analyse spatial and demographic information to discern trends in population, land-use, employment, etc., to inform policy development.
• Monitoring and reporting on implementation progress, including gathering/analysis of development and market activity.
• Liaising and working with neighbouring planning authorities and other public authorities on all aspects of implementation.
• Preparation of policy and reports as required on a wide variety of planning matters.
• Input to inter-disciplinary projects dealing with land-use, transport, environment, etc.,
• Represent the Council at meetings with staff, elected members, community/general interest groups, business and residents, as required,
• Any other associated duties as may be assigned from time to time.

The above specification is not intended to be a comprehensive list of all duties involved and

consequently, the post holder may be required to perform other duties as appropriate to the post which may be assigned to him/her from time to time and to contribute to the development of the post while in office

The ideal candidate shall have:

• The ability to work within a multi-disciplinary team.
• Good planning, operational and project management skills.
• Good communication/presentation and interpersonal skills.
• Good knowledge, or the ability to quickly acquire same, of local government functions, services and activities, particularly in relation to planning and development.
• A good working knowledge of planning legislation and the principals, practices and techniques of planning.
• An ability to work under pressure and to think laterally, maintaining a solution orientated mind set while dealing with a wide range of issues.
• Good report writing skills and strong IT skills.
• An ability to achieve delivery of competing demands within prescribed timelines and deadlines.
• Membership of the Irish Planning Institute or Royal Town Planning Institute is desirable.