When Peter Brooks joined a local council’s planning department as a temp 16 years ago he had no idea he would develop a career in the field and find it so intellectually stimulating and rewarding.
Peter became a planner by chance. He graduated in 2008 with a degree in Media Production in the middle of the financial crash. “I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, and a neighbour worked in the planning team at Guildford Borough Council and told me about some temping work there in the Planning Department’s administration team. I found it to be far more interesting and varied than I thought, and I ended up going for a permanent job. Lots of planners come into the field from a variety of routes not just with backgrounds in Geography.”
Peter joined Elmbridge as a senior planner in 2016 and became a Team Leader a year later. Elmbridge is split into three areas, and he is responsible for the south of the borough. He said each application was different even the residential ones and his job required a lot of knowledge and understanding of local and national planning policy so was “quite intellectually stimulating”.
As team leader he attends committee meetings where planning applications are being discussed and assists councillors with their decisions: “Every day I learn something new. National policy has just been updated and we have the new Local Plan coming through which will mean we’ll have a new set of guidelines to assess applications against. I have dealt with some challenging cases, but they have made me a better planner.”
His team is currently preparing for some public inquiries that take a lot of preparation which he will support with.
“We have regular meetings, with all levels of planning officers attending, so junior planners can learn from more experienced staff from the beginning.
“It’s a very collaborative environment with great opportunities to progress. I went from senior planner to Team Leader in a year!”