Croeso

Neil
Development Control Support Team Leader
London Borough of Haringey

I have been working for the London Borough of Haringey since November 2001, previously I was at the London Borough of Brent and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

When I saw the job advertised, I felt that it was a good opportunity to develop and progress my career, as I had been in my old role within the council for sometime.

The development control support team covers both technical administration and customer care aspects of planning development control. The technical administration or 'back office' operations include processing applications, entering details on to a planning database and producing correspondence. Front line or customer care activities principally include dealing with all customer contacts made by telephone, in writing and in person about the planning service.

My objective as the development control support team leader is to ensure the smooth running of the team and be responsible for the provision of high quality, responsive and effective customer focused support services for the development control group. I also contribute to the group management team and am accountable to the head of development control though the line management structure.

The best part about my job is dealing with customers and solving problems. I also enjoy developing ideas to improve the service. The most challenging aspect of my job is managing people.

I joined Haringey on a graduate recruitment scheme. This provided a two-year training programme to develop a range of skills. More recently I was selected for the council's Aiming High programme, which provided a training programme to develop managers.

I am very happy working at Haringey and would like to continue to develop here. Ultimately I would like to remain in the public sector.