Senior Planning Technician

The Planning Authority in Malta is currently looking to recruit a Senior Planning Technician to join their team on a full-time basis.

Overview:

The Planning Authority is committed to ensure that land use meets the needs of today’s society and future communities.

The Authority has a vacancy in the post of Senior Planning Technician, to provide technical support to the Unit/Team in fulfilling their functions and responsibilities.

To promote and sustain a service culture which meets the expectations of the clients of the Development Management and to assist in the achievement of the agreed objectives as set out in the Business Plan.

Duties and areas of responsibilities:

The job incumbent is expected to undertake the following duties amongst others:-

• Receiving applications for different types of development permission, checking for completeness and calculating or checking Building Levy due, referring back incomplete applications indicating discrepancies with established checklist and Building Levy required, and inputting data in the Development Management Information System
• Maintaining a public interface, including discussing planning issues with the general public and architects over the counter; giving advice on development proposals and on current applications in relation to statutory development plans and/or policy documents; and dealing with general correspondence and answering written queries
• Processing various types of applications for development permission allocated by a senior officer, including the carrying out of consultations with statutory bodies; making site visits, assessing applications in relation to the SPED, relevant Local Plan and other policies/standards, and preparing development permission application reports with specific recommendations for endorsement by a more Senior Officer
• Carrying out consultations, discussions and negotiations with applicants and their architects/professional advisers, and liaison with representatives of other agencies, statutory bodies, community organizations and with the general public; and making recommendations to applicants and their agents on the changes required to applications to enable their approval, having regard to policies and proposals of current SPED / Local Plans /Development Control Design Policy Guidance Standards 2015
• Assisting planning officers and/or Principal Technical Officers in preparing and implementing plans, policies, reports and documents on matters relating to strategic and local planning policy, and setting up and maintenance of the necessary databases and carrying out the necessary surveys and data collection and analysis
• Assisting in the monitoring and review of policies and statistical information and carrying out or assisting in the carrying out of surveys of land use, development, environmental, demographic, socio-economic and other relevant issues and trends
• Preparing statements on requests for re-consideration drafting out statements for appeals and assisting senior staff at the Environment and Planning Review Tribunal
• As necessary, attending meetings of the Executive Council / Planning Board / Planning Commissions, public meetings, exhibitions or other functions to assist more senior staff
• Assisting Planning Officers in managing and scheduling the workload of the Team / Unit to obtain maximum effectiveness whilst ensuring the maintenance of standards
• Interpreting building/road alignments on large-scale surveys
• Making use of information technology tools to formulate reports, present data, plot data on digital maps and communicate internally with other officers through IT
• May be required to carry out ancillary job-related duties to the above-mentioned main responsibilities within the scope of normal flexibility.