Countryside Manager

Role Responsibility

Samuel Palmer, the visionary Victorian landscape artist, described the Darent Valley as an ‘earthly paradise’. Two centuries on, it remains a beautiful rural area, mostly within the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). With significant funding from the National Lottery Heritage, the Kent Downs AONB Unit is working to conserve and enhance this special cultural landscape through its Darent Valley Landscape Partnership Scheme (DVLPS). We are in the final two years of the scheme and are looking for an experienced countryside management professional to develop, deliver and complete a genuinely interesting range of projects.

Operating from a converted barn in the heart of the valley as part of the wider AONB Unit, this is a pivotal role in our multi-disciplinary team. With the support of your heritage, education and interpretation colleagues within the DVLPS team, your focus will be on delivering the projects that conserve biodiversity and landscape, as well as those enabling people to access, enjoy and explore the valley’s natural and cultural heritage. Amongst others, these include natural flood management, chalk grassland restoration, historic parkland management and improving the Darent Valley Path. You will also support the team to deliver across all the scheme’s programmes and ensure that the landscape continues to benefit people and communities today.

This is an outstanding opportunity for a motivated candidate to progress their career in countryside management by being part of the Kent Downs AONB’s flagship landscape conservation project.

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.

This role is full-time and contracted to 30^th September 2023.

Secondment opportunities can be considered.

Contact Details

For more information about the role, please contact Rick Bayne, Landscape Partnership Manager at rick.bayne@kentdowns.org.uk or on 01732 280951.

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.