Natural Historic Environment

Natural and Historic Environment Service

Landscape Team Ecology Urban Design Archaeology

We are made up of landscape architects and woodland officers that have a wide variety of roles to help promote the conservation and enhancement of the historic and biodiverse landscape.

Working in partnership with our ecology and archaeology colleagues, we ensure that the Wiltshire landscapes, of which over 44% are either of national or international historical or ecological importance, are protected by working with partners in the Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, National Park, and World Heritage Site.

We are responsible for developing and maintaining specific Council policies such as the Wiltshire Landscape Character Assessment, Wiltshire Landscape Strategy, the Wiltshire Green and Blue Infrastructure Strategy, and the Woodland and Tree Strategy and acting as expert consultants for the Council's planning team. As well as these statutory responsibilities, our team has secured funding with partners such as Natural England to work on community engagement on landscape and the environment.

The Woodland Officer Team who sits in the overall landscape team is an exciting new venture in partnership with Swindon Borough Council and the Great Western Community Forest to help increase woodland coverage across Wiltshire and Swindon, assisting the Council to meet its Climate Strategy goals of natural carbon sequestration and increasing biodiversity whilst protecting our unique historic environments and habitats, working with landowners and communities to realise the economic and social benefits of well planned and managed woodland.

 

The Ecology team is committed to protecting and restoring Wiltshire’s unique natural environment and supporting well-placed and well-designed growth that meets the needs of people, nature, and climate.

We are a growing team helping to deliver nature recovery, improving access to the countryside for communities, and protecting and enhancing our most important wildlife places.

 

The Service area covers a number of key strategic functions including:

  • Environmental and Ecology Planning Strategy and Policy Development
  • Advising on the implications of new development
  • Delivery of wildlife creation projects for environment offsetting such as creating a chalk grassland nature reserve, Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace, wetlands, woodland, and hedgerow planting
  • Partnership working to deliver nature recovery and environmental improvements in Wiltshire.

 

Each of those areas is subject to significant external and internal pressures all of which have the potential to generate strongly held views and opinions.

We are creating Roundbarrow Nature Reserve. The project is to restore a 120 ha of intensively farmed land to a chalk grassland nature reserve.

Here is a farm project that we have restoring land from intensive agriculture to chalk grassland.

 

Urban design officers in Wiltshire play a strategic advisory role in the consideration of development proposals, assessing planning applications against established principles of good design which are enshrined in both national and local planning policy and guidance.

The timely focused, and sustained input of the skills of the urban design officers make a crucial contribution to raising the design quality of development proposals and promoting high design standards for development throughout the county.

In carrying out their remit, urban design officers use a range of visual communication tools and skills to illustrate ideas, helping to ensure clear communication and mutual understanding between different stakeholders.

 

More specifically, the urban design officers within Wiltshire provide specialist design advice as an internal consultees to:

  • The Development Management Service, evaluating planning applications for compliance with the Local Plan Core Policy 57 ’Ensuring high-quality design and place shaping’ whilst also recognizing the policies of related disciplines and Neighbourhood Plans, and national and local design guidance. Through the planning case officers, they liaise with developers, agents, planners and designers, and other Services and stakeholders involved in an application;
  • The Spatial Planning Service, on Local Plan making, including input into the formulation of policies and supplementary planning documents. They provide early advice on development concepts and produce CAD masterplans for strategically significant proposals such as urban extensions and housing site allocations. They also provide advice on the preparation and review of Neighbourhood Plans;
  • Other internal departments and disciplines within Wiltshire Council including the Major Projects and Housing Services, on Council-led development initiatives and projects which may include local communities. This can include providing technical services such as drawing constraint plans, design concepts, and feasibility layouts.

 

Urban design officers may also represent Wiltshire Council as an Expert Witness on design matters in planning appeals and public inquiries or through participation in public and private meetings, design panels and forums, committees, and workshops.

Because of the multi-disciplinary, problem-solving nature of urban design, officers have developed and maintained positive relationships and informal lines of communication with colleagues across many Service areas such as Transport, Highways, Public Health, Regeneration, Ecology, and especially Landscape.

In providing the above services, urban design officers in Wiltshire bring to the role their personal experience as professional designers, ensuring that advice is pragmatic and constructive. Officers maintain familiarization with key aspects of evolving sustainability and construction technologies, government initiatives, national policy and guidance, and best practices in urban design and may facilitate the expertise, support, and services of external organizations such as acknowledged national Design Review and place-making bodies.

 

“Urban design is the design of cities, towns and villages, streets and spaces. It is the collaborative and multi-disciplinary process of shaping the physical setting for life – the art of making places. Urban design involves the design of buildings, groups of buildings, spaces and landscapes, and establishing frameworks and procedures that will deliver successful development by different people over time.”

 

In one of the most archaeologically rich counties on the country, Wiltshire’s Archaeology Service works to identify, record and protect Wiltshire´s historic environment by advising the Council’s planners and negotiating with landowners and developers.

Wiltshire is outstanding for its archaeological remains which include well known monuments such as those in the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site. Each year brings a crop of new discoveries, but also challenges as we seek to enable development whilst preserving the remains of the past.

There are a wide range of heritage expertise within the Archaeology Team, including historic buildings, world heritage, historic environment records and field archaeology.

 

Landscape Team

We are made up of landscape architects and woodland officers that have a wide variety of roles to help promote the conservation and enhancement of the historic and biodiverse landscape.

Working in partnership with our ecology and archaeology colleagues, we ensure that the Wiltshire landscapes, of which over 44% are either of national or international historical or ecological importance, are protected by working with partners in the Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, National Park, and World Heritage Site.

We are responsible for developing and maintaining specific Council policies such as the Wiltshire Landscape Character Assessment, Wiltshire Landscape Strategy, the Wiltshire Green and Blue Infrastructure Strategy, and the Woodland and Tree Strategy and acting as expert consultants for the Council's planning team. As well as these statutory responsibilities, our team has secured funding with partners such as Natural England to work on community engagement on landscape and the environment.

The Woodland Officer Team who sits in the overall landscape team is an exciting new venture in partnership with Swindon Borough Council and the Great Western Community Forest to help increase woodland coverage across Wiltshire and Swindon, assisting the Council to meet its Climate Strategy goals of natural carbon sequestration and increasing biodiversity whilst protecting our unique historic environments and habitats, working with landowners and communities to realise the economic and social benefits of well planned and managed woodland.

 

Ecology

The Ecology team is committed to protecting and restoring Wiltshire’s unique natural environment and supporting well-placed and well-designed growth that meets the needs of people, nature, and climate.

We are a growing team helping to deliver nature recovery, improving access to the countryside for communities, and protecting and enhancing our most important wildlife places.

 

The Service area covers a number of key strategic functions including:

  • Environmental and Ecology Planning Strategy and Policy Development
  • Advising on the implications of new development
  • Delivery of wildlife creation projects for environment offsetting such as creating a chalk grassland nature reserve, Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace, wetlands, woodland, and hedgerow planting
  • Partnership working to deliver nature recovery and environmental improvements in Wiltshire.

 

Each of those areas is subject to significant external and internal pressures all of which have the potential to generate strongly held views and opinions.

We are creating Roundbarrow Nature Reserve. The project is to restore a 120 ha of intensively farmed land to a chalk grassland nature reserve.

Here is a farm project that we have restoring land from intensive agriculture to chalk grassland.

 

Urban Design

Urban design officers in Wiltshire play a strategic advisory role in the consideration of development proposals, assessing planning applications against established principles of good design which are enshrined in both national and local planning policy and guidance.

The timely focused, and sustained input of the skills of the urban design officers make a crucial contribution to raising the design quality of development proposals and promoting high design standards for development throughout the county.

In carrying out their remit, urban design officers use a range of visual communication tools and skills to illustrate ideas, helping to ensure clear communication and mutual understanding between different stakeholders.

 

More specifically, the urban design officers within Wiltshire provide specialist design advice as an internal consultees to:

  • The Development Management Service, evaluating planning applications for compliance with the Local Plan Core Policy 57 ’Ensuring high-quality design and place shaping’ whilst also recognizing the policies of related disciplines and Neighbourhood Plans, and national and local design guidance. Through the planning case officers, they liaise with developers, agents, planners and designers, and other Services and stakeholders involved in an application;
  • The Spatial Planning Service, on Local Plan making, including input into the formulation of policies and supplementary planning documents. They provide early advice on development concepts and produce CAD masterplans for strategically significant proposals such as urban extensions and housing site allocations. They also provide advice on the preparation and review of Neighbourhood Plans;
  • Other internal departments and disciplines within Wiltshire Council including the Major Projects and Housing Services, on Council-led development initiatives and projects which may include local communities. This can include providing technical services such as drawing constraint plans, design concepts, and feasibility layouts.

 

Urban design officers may also represent Wiltshire Council as an Expert Witness on design matters in planning appeals and public inquiries or through participation in public and private meetings, design panels and forums, committees, and workshops.

Because of the multi-disciplinary, problem-solving nature of urban design, officers have developed and maintained positive relationships and informal lines of communication with colleagues across many Service areas such as Transport, Highways, Public Health, Regeneration, Ecology, and especially Landscape.

In providing the above services, urban design officers in Wiltshire bring to the role their personal experience as professional designers, ensuring that advice is pragmatic and constructive. Officers maintain familiarization with key aspects of evolving sustainability and construction technologies, government initiatives, national policy and guidance, and best practices in urban design and may facilitate the expertise, support, and services of external organizations such as acknowledged national Design Review and place-making bodies.

 

“Urban design is the design of cities, towns and villages, streets and spaces. It is the collaborative and multi-disciplinary process of shaping the physical setting for life – the art of making places. Urban design involves the design of buildings, groups of buildings, spaces and landscapes, and establishing frameworks and procedures that will deliver successful development by different people over time.”

 

Archaeology

In one of the most archaeologically rich counties on the country, Wiltshire’s Archaeology Service works to identify, record and protect Wiltshire´s historic environment by advising the Council’s planners and negotiating with landowners and developers.

Wiltshire is outstanding for its archaeological remains which include well known monuments such as those in the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site. Each year brings a crop of new discoveries, but also challenges as we seek to enable development whilst preserving the remains of the past.

There are a wide range of heritage expertise within the Archaeology Team, including historic buildings, world heritage, historic environment records and field archaeology.

 

Why should you come work for Wiltshire Council?

Hear what our team members say... Employee benefits

"Since joining the ecology team, I have learned a great deal & felt empowered by being involved in the development of new & exciting strategies & solutions aiming to resolve problems facing biodiversity."

 

“I moved to Wiltshire from Wales to take up the post of what was then County Ecologist, because it was obvious that Wiltshire is a forward-looking authority in terms of ecology & conservation of the natural environment. 16 years later & I have never looked at working anywhere else in all that time.  There are so many opportunities to grow a truly resilient natural landscape in Wiltshire & we are definitely at the forefront of strategic ecological thinking.”

 

“Working within the Wiltshire Council landscape team has really given me a chance to pursue the fundamental reasons I became a landscape architect; to help protect and enhance the natural beauty of our landscape that is more resilient for the changing world we live in, as well as having the chance to local communities to engage with these issues.”

 

"The team has a vast wealth of environmental knowledge & has readily provided their time, humour & support to ensure I can readily take on the role’s responsibilities. The council is also adaptable to my domestic demands which have provided me with a healthy work-life balance."

 

“Working within the Wiltshire Council Archaeology team has given me the opportunity to work in some of the richest and most significant archaeological landscapes in the country, and to make a difference in their protection and preservation.  In addition, the advice and outreach work we do really contributes to the quality of Wiltshire’s environment and to the lives of the local communities.”

We focus on getting the things that matter to our people right!

Council Benefits

  • Flexible working - We positively encourage flexibility - wherever possible giving you the option to work in a way that works best for you.
  • Holidays – you’ll receive 25 days' annual leave, rising to 30 after 5 years and then 32 after 40 years service, plus public and bank holidays
  • Ability to purchase up to 20 extra days of annual leave
  • Truly flexible working, roles are hybrid between home and the workplace where applicable
  • Wiltshire Rewards
  • Subsidised rail – we can offer you a 25% discount on rail season tickets
  • Local discounts with retailers and service providers
  • Discounted leisure membership
  • Occupational health – offers a variety of employee wellbeing services to support a healthy work/life balance and lifestyle, including health screening and smoking cessation sessions
  • Family friendly policies
  • Development - Our HR / OD team has built an impressive suite of learning and training activities that provide a rounded and learner-centred experience. 
  • Car pool – if you need a car for a business trip you can book a car. Our fleet includes fully electric vehicles and ultra-low emissions cars and electric charging points 

If you would like to find out more then please tab here!

 

Hear what our team members say...

"Since joining the ecology team, I have learned a great deal & felt empowered by being involved in the development of new & exciting strategies & solutions aiming to resolve problems facing biodiversity."

 

“I moved to Wiltshire from Wales to take up the post of what was then County Ecologist, because it was obvious that Wiltshire is a forward-looking authority in terms of ecology & conservation of the natural environment. 16 years later & I have never looked at working anywhere else in all that time.  There are so many opportunities to grow a truly resilient natural landscape in Wiltshire & we are definitely at the forefront of strategic ecological thinking.”

 

“Working within the Wiltshire Council landscape team has really given me a chance to pursue the fundamental reasons I became a landscape architect; to help protect and enhance the natural beauty of our landscape that is more resilient for the changing world we live in, as well as having the chance to local communities to engage with these issues.”

 

"The team has a vast wealth of environmental knowledge & has readily provided their time, humour & support to ensure I can readily take on the role’s responsibilities. The council is also adaptable to my domestic demands which have provided me with a healthy work-life balance."

 

“Working within the Wiltshire Council Archaeology team has given me the opportunity to work in some of the richest and most significant archaeological landscapes in the country, and to make a difference in their protection and preservation.  In addition, the advice and outreach work we do really contributes to the quality of Wiltshire’s environment and to the lives of the local communities.”

Employee benefits

We focus on getting the things that matter to our people right!

Council Benefits

  • Flexible working - We positively encourage flexibility - wherever possible giving you the option to work in a way that works best for you.
  • Holidays – you’ll receive 25 days' annual leave, rising to 30 after 5 years and then 32 after 40 years service, plus public and bank holidays
  • Ability to purchase up to 20 extra days of annual leave
  • Truly flexible working, roles are hybrid between home and the workplace where applicable
  • Wiltshire Rewards
  • Subsidised rail – we can offer you a 25% discount on rail season tickets
  • Local discounts with retailers and service providers
  • Discounted leisure membership
  • Occupational health – offers a variety of employee wellbeing services to support a healthy work/life balance and lifestyle, including health screening and smoking cessation sessions
  • Family friendly policies
  • Development - Our HR / OD team has built an impressive suite of learning and training activities that provide a rounded and learner-centred experience. 
  • Car pool – if you need a car for a business trip you can book a car. Our fleet includes fully electric vehicles and ultra-low emissions cars and electric charging points 

If you would like to find out more then please tab here!

 

To find out more about working in our Natural and Historic Environment Service, please contact Recruitment Specialist, Natalia Kubis

E-mail: natalia.kubis@wiltshire.gov.uk

 | Telephone: 01225 718 751

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