Senior Planner

Department: Operations

Location: Leeds

Compensation: £38,000 - £48,000 / year

Description

Senior Planner
Rural Solutions

Who we are
At Rural Solutions, we’re passionate about shaping rural places with creativity, care, and purpose. As a multidisciplinary consultancy, we bring together expertise in Planning, Architecture, Landscape Design, and Rural Development to deliver thoughtful, impactful solutions for our clients.

We’re proud of our collaborative culture, where people are supported, ideas are shared, and every team member is valued. If you’re looking to work in a place where your contribution matters and your growth is encouraged, we’d love to hear from you.

Part of the Celnor Group
Celnor Group is a UK-based environmental services group operating across the Testing, Inspection, Certification and Compliance (TICC) landscape. With a growing portfolio of specialist businesses, Celnor provides essential services that protect people, property and the environment.

While each business retains its own identity, culture and technical specialism, all are supported by a central group function that invests in people, systems and long-term sustainable growth.

Job details
We’re looking for an experienced chartered planning professional or planner to join our expanding team. You’ll deliver a portfolio of client projects across rural land and property, working nationwide with a diverse client base.

You’ll play a key role in business development, building strong client relationships, and contributing to the growth of our services. The role offers the opportunity to work independently and as part of integrated, multidisciplinary teams.

What you will do

• Managing a variety of planning applications, appeals and pre-application enquiries.

Prepare a range of planning documents required to support applications including sequential assessments and planning statements.

Prepare and progress applications through the planning system.

Liaise with officers at Local Planning Authorities pre, during and post-application.

Communicating with relevant parties regarding the status of planning applications and queries.

Undertake site assessments to establish development potential to include site inspections, detailed examination of planning histories, policy analysis and interpretation and consideration of material considerations.

Assess the planning merits of a site, formulating planning strategies to promote medium- and long-term development sites through the plan-making process.

Prepare and submit client approved representations to development plan documents within agreed timescales.

Prepare/co-ordinate evidence to support the allocation of sites/areas for development/growth at examination.

Who you are
We’re seeking a commercially aware candidate with over five years’ post-qualification experience in planning. You’ll be resourceful, flexible, and ambitious, with a proven track record in business development and project delivery.

You’ll bring:

• An excellent understanding of client relationship management
• Excellent presentation skills
• Proven ability to manage workload, budgets, and project co-ordination
• Confidence and competence across a range of planning disciplines
• Experience in rural planning is beneficial, but not essential—an understanding of rural planning issues is valued

Join us
You’ll be joining a business where your contribution matters and where professionalism, integrity and teamwork are genuinely valued. As part of the wider Celnor Group, you’ll benefit from group-wide investment, shared expertise and opportunities to develop your career as the organisation continues to grow.

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Important information
Celnor Group and its businesses manage recruitment directly. We do not require agency support for this role and will only engage with recruitment partners from our preferred supplier list where necessary.

We may use technology, including AI-enabled tools, to support parts of the recruitment process. AI is not used for candidate screening, scoring or hiring decisions. All hiring decisions are made by people, for people. Our recruitment systems are ISO 42001 accredited, reflecting our commitment to ethical, transparent and responsible use of technology.