Lymington and Pennington Town Council - Vacancy for a Parks and Open Spaces Manager
Name of recruiting organisation
Lymington and Pennington Town Council
Employed role/Volunteer role
Employed
Permanent role/Fixed term role
Permanent
Location:
Office based
Salary:
Salary £38,626 - £41 511 (SCP 29 – 32) LGPS pension scheme and free car parking
Hours:
Monday – Thursday 8am -16.00pm - Friday 8am – 15.30pm. 37 hours per week. Occasional event assistance required.
Our council and the role:
A rare opportunity has arisen for a dynamic Parks & Open Spaces Manager at Lymington & Pennington Town Council. This is a permanent role and duties will be varied, involving managing the team responsible for the maintenance of the Town Council’s gardens, sports pitches, facilities, allotments, play areas and a variety of open spaces, including woodlands and ponds. Candidates must be in possession of a clean driving licence, and have experience of (or a mixture of) horticultural/ open spaces/ sports turf and facility management. You will be responsible for managing a Grounds Team of 11 staff, and thus experience in managing a workforce is essential.
Duties will include:
- To be responsible for managing the maintenance of Council’s vehicles, plant, and equipment.
- To deliver effective management of the Parks & Open Spaces budget.
- To develop and coordinate management and monitoring of the Council’s Health and Safety Policies and identify training needs in relation to the Parks & Open Spaces service. To manage risk areas involving parks and open space facilities, and co ordinate works on buildings necessary to satisfy health & safety compliance in buildings and facilities.
- To manage the design, planning and implementation of sports turf, gardens, parks, open spaces, ponds and water amenity areas. To ensure that regular checks of areas are undertaken and problems are assessed and rectified as appropriate.
- To be responsible for managing the tree budget and liaising with tree survey contractors, including contractors carrying out the works, also responding to public queries and developing and maintaining the tree policy
- To effectively manage and supervise the grounds staffing unit involving approximately 11 staff, organising training & development where necessary, maintaining a training register, and feed into the future training strategy. To also undertake staff appraisal process annually and develop/manage an inspirational team leadership ethos.
- To develop and implement work schedules for the grounds maintenance & gardening unit encompassing maintenance/depreciation programmes for equipment, and maintaining the asset register of tools, machinery and equipment, feeding into the budgeting process.
- To provide extensive support to the Town Clerk with the development and implementation of tenders and service contracts, managing these processes as necessary.
- To develop relationships with partner bodies at community, local government and business levels to promote Lymington and Pennington open spaces and facilities.
- To co ordinate and undertake any necessary repair works annually at Sea Water Baths.
- To attend and arrange appropriate manpower from team as required at annual events, involving a weekend day or an evening, for Council’s Health & Safety purposes.
- To provide any documentation to the Clerk to support Council’s decision making process required for future plans, projects or investment for Parks and Open Spaces.
The ideal candidate will have/be:
- Good general education with a minimum of 5 GCSEs, or equivalent including English and Maths
- Willing to undertake an appropriate management qualification or similar necessary training within 12 months of appointment
- Significant experience of working at management level in a Parks, Open Spaces and public buildings environment
- Proven experience of managing a workforce and developing/ implementing performance management processes in relation to people and services
- Experience of contracting tree works and assessing sites/problems with trees and/or implications from a liability perspective
- Budgetary management experience
- Thorough knowledge and understanding of the key issues influencing the development of public parks, open spaces, and sport management facilities
- IT literate and familiar with MS Office software
- Understanding of the requirements and responsibilities of the Council with regard to Health & Safety legislation
- Strategic thinker able to drive development and use initiative
- Ability to engender a team ethos and inspire/encourage, dealing with any staffing issues
- Ability to work under pressure to meet agreed deadlines by organising workloads effectively.
- Ability to anticipate problems and resolve them by suggesting solutions
- Ability to utilise own knowledge and experience to assess a situation effectively, understand the work required and co-ordinate said work.
- Clean driving licence
What we offer you in return:
LGPS pension scheme and free car parking
How to find out more details:
Closing date:
24th February 2025 @ 12:00 noon