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Countryside Access Officer

Please Note: The application deadline for this job has now passed.

Role Responsibility

The visionary Victorian landscape artist, Samuel Palmer, described the Darent Valley as an ‘earthly paradise’. Two centuries on, it remains a beautiful rural area, much of it designated within the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). With £4m from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and others, the Kent Downs AONB Unit is enhancing and raising the profile of this very special landscape through its Darent Valley Landscape Partnership Scheme (DVLPS).

To complete our friendly multi-disciplinary team, we are searching for an individual with experience of working with communities to improve physical access to rural areas.

From the scheme’s base, a converted barn in the heart of the valley, you will be supporting the delivery of projects in the ‘Exploration’ programme to help visitors and communities discover and access the area’s wonderful landscape and heritage. Working with the scheme’s Countryside Manager, you will deliver physical improvements to the Darent Valley Path to realise the scheme’s aspirations of a traffic-free route from ‘source to Thames’. You will also play a key role in establishing the ‘Community Local Landscape Trails’ initiative and support access-related work embedded across the four other DVLPS programmes of ‘Inspiration’, ‘Historic’, ‘Natural’ and ‘Learning’.  

This is a genuinely exciting opportunity for a motivated candidate to innovate and develop their career in countryside and access management by being part of the Kent Downs AONB’s flagship landscape conservation project.

This role is initially part-time (2 days per week) and contracted for a twelve-month period, but with the prospect of both extension and expansion. Secondment and other flexible work practices can be considered

This post is considered by KCC to be a customer-facing position. The Council therefore has a statutory duty under Part 7 of the Immigration Act (2016) to ensure that post holders have a command of spoken English/Welsh sufficient for the effective performance of the job requirements. The appropriate standards are set out in the Job Description/Person Specification

Contact Details

For further details, please contact Rick Bayne (Landscape Partnership Manager) or Mary Tate (Countryside Manager) on 01732 280951. Alternatively email at darent.valley@kentdowns.org.uk

About the Company

KCC is committed to building a workforce which reflects the diversity of the county's working residents, encouraging applications from people of all ages, abilities, genders, sexual orientations, ethnic backgrounds and faiths, and aspires to create an inclusive workplace where everyone can be themselves at work.

Please note – if you are interested, please apply as soon as possible as the closing date for this advert may be earlier than stated should a number of suitably qualified candidates apply.

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