Assistant Spatial Planner
National HighwaysWakefield, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom, Yorkshire and the Humber
Overview
This is a public transport role with National Highways based in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom. GovJobs has indexed this vacancy from its official source — use the apply button to view the full advert and apply directly.
Job description
About the job
National Highways have an exciting opportunity for an Assistant Spatial Planner to join our multi-disciplinary team in the Yorkshire North-East region. The Assistant Spatial Planner will take a proactive role in the town and country planning system by helping to ensure that new developments are well located and planned for, and the travel demands they create are sustainable.
You will assist and work alongside our team of Spatial Planners, working with local authority partners and developers to ensure the transport impacts of individual developments and Local Plans are fully considered and mitigation measures necessary on our road network are identified.
You will be responsible to manage your own caseloads, as well as co-ordinating with other parts of the organisation in submitting our responses.
This role will be based from our offices in Wakefield or Leeds.
- Working with Spatial Planners and Spatial Planning Manager as they engage with internal and external partners to identify and secure funding opportunities for improvements to our road network which support development, for example through developer contributions and the Housing Infrastructure Fund.
- Discharging our responsibilities as a statutory consultee within the planning system, including the management of specialist consultant support; where necessary, escalating more complex cases to a Spatial Planner or Spatial Planning Manager
- Applying specialist knowledge to evaluate the potential impact and implications of development proposals on our road network, to enable a measured, robust and informed response to ensure the safe and efficient operation of the SRN is maintained, escalating more complex cases. You will contribute to a measured, robust and informed response that ensures the safe and efficient operation of our road network is maintained.
- Preparing planning consultation responses and reports and providing support on more complex cases. You will be involved with the management of all aspects of Development Consent Orders as well as the administration aspects of our wider cost recovery initiative.
- Supporting ongoing liaison with key external stakeholders, through attendance at meetings and other planning or discussion forums. You will provide evidence-based and transparent guidance and advice on future local plans and share information on National Highways emerging strategies and future programmes for the region.
- Have a prior understanding of spatial planning or town planning / transport planning, including associated legislation and development management.
- Be aware and have knowledge relevant statutory and regulatory responsibilities/standards/manuals, requirements and guidance.
- Have an appreciation of the importance of transport-related issues, to the spatial planning arena.
- A good understanding of transport appraisal techniques and guidance.
Here at National Highways, we manage and improve England’s motorways and major A roads, helping our customers have safer, smoother and more reliable journeys. Our priorities are safety, customers and delivery, and at the core of this, are our values of passion, integrity, safety, teamwork and ownership.
Operations is at the heart of keeping the strategic road network moving and ensuring our customers get the best possible experience when using our roads.
We address over 39,000 customer enquiries every month, plan and deliver all maintenance activities on the network, drive efficiencies and improvements across our systems and roads, and respond to incidents across 4,500 miles of motorways and major A-roads that we manage. All to make sure National Highways customers have safer, smoother, and more reliable journeys.
External candidates will be offered a starting salary at the lower end of the pay scale, while current employees will be appointed in accordance with our established pay policy.
We are committed to creating a diverse environment and welcome applicants from all backgrounds.
How this role compares
There are 85 rail & transport roles open across the UK on GovJobs right now, 4 of them in Yorkshire and the Humber.
National Highways has 14 other vacancies open on GovJobs, with a breakdown of what they pay and the kinds of roles they recruit for.
These figures are calculated from the vacancies GovJobs currently holds, not from official pay statistics. They are a guide to the market, not a valuation of this post.
How to apply
GovJobs does not take applications or send your details to the employer. Use the apply button to open the official National Highways advert, then check the employer's instructions, attachments, person specification and closing time before applying.
This listing was last checked on 28 Aug 2026, 15:12. If the official advert has changed or closed, report it and we will review the listing.
Why this listing is on GovJobs
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The source for this role is National Highways. Applications stay on the official employer or source website, not on GovJobs.