St. Helens Borough Council is seeking to expand and develop its team of arborists within the Council’s Arboriculture Service and is looking to recruit enthusiastic, motivated and diligent team members, with the appropriate skills, qualifications and demonstrable expertise necessary to fulfil the role.
You will join a strong established team, to carry out a comprehensive range of arboriculture operations to maintain the Council’s tree and woodland assets, to include tree inspections and tree safety risk assessments, deploying equipment and undertaking works in accordance with British Standard 3998-2010 for Tree Works.
You will be required to supervise operatives to carry out all aspects of skilled, practical and technical arboriculture and horticulture work, within Parks, Schools, Highways, private land and open spaces. You will carry out a wide range of Arboricultural tasks including, felling, pruning, stump removal using specialist equipment in a professional and safe manner, following all relevant health & safety procedures to ensure the safety of the public and other colleagues.
We are looking for someone who:
• Has a personal interest in tree, woodland and land management and be able to demonstrate a commitment to delivering high quality customer focused services and product, to an agreed standard throughout the borough.
• Is an effective communicator, confident to engage with the rest of the arborist team, the public, Council staff, contractors and partners and support the management team as necessary.
• Has an awareness of the environmental and community benefits and challenges tree and woodland assets present in a range of settings is essential.
• The role is physically demanding and will involve working at height from a rope and harness. You will have demonstrable experience and expertise in all aspects of arboriculture practice including climbing operation of a chainsaw from rope and harness, along with MEWP operations.
• Be able to display excellent leadership, organisation, communication (written and verbal) and customer care skills.
• Has Knowledge of Health and Safety including, HASAW, Chapter 8, COSHH, LOLER, and PUWER regulations.
• Must be RFS Arboriculture qualified or be willing to complete the qualification within a reasonable timeframe, usually 2 years.
• Applicants must hold a valid full driving licence, and a willingness to work towards a HGV driving licence, or C1 plus E.
The post requires a flexible approach to meet service demands including participation in the Councils out of hours emergency call out response rota, which includes evening or weekend working, for which additional payments apply.
We can offer you:
• Attractive salary
• A comprehensive range of employment benefits, including access to the local government pension scheme and sick pay scheme.
• 25 Days annual leave (rising to 28 days after 5 years’ service) plus bank holidays. During the summer period, the successful candidate will work 42 hours per week - 37 hours paid and 5 hours repaid as credit leave, which is then taken from October to March.
• A dedicated and supportive working culture.
• A positive and open working environment.
• Access to training & development, to support our own top level aborist plant and equipment, including cherry picker equipment.
• Car Parking Facilities
Council employees are required to abide by the ethical standards embodied by the 7 NOLAN principles of conduct in public life. These include selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership.
We welcome applications from the BAME community.
For an informal discussion about this role please contact Mr Wayne Bloor, Arboricultural Operational Officer on 01744 674305.
