About the job

Salary: £26,409 - £28,624 a year
Hours per week: 37
Contract type: Permanent

Do you love to work outdoors and feel ready to take the next step in your horticultural career with the Parks and Countryside Service at Luton Borough Council? If yes, we want to hear from you.

We have an exciting opportunity for a skilled gardener where you will work alongside and provide direction, mentoring and on the job training to a team of up to 5 gardener/grounds persons to ensure that our horticultural areas, shrub beds and amenity areas are maintained to specified standards.

You will be responsible for assigning and directing the workload of your team and where required mentor our apprentices and work alongside our Parks and Countryside Service Garden volunteers to ensure that our parks are welcoming, well maintained and meet the needs of residents and visitors to the town.

You will also be required to use a range of horticultural machinery including where required ride-on and pedestrian controlled machines, powered hand tools and equipment throughout the Borough of Luton.

On occasion we may close a vacancy early due to a very high number of applications being received.

Please note this role does not attract sponsorship.

About you

Are you able to prioritise and organise workloads to meet conflicting service demands, targets and deadlines? If yes, we want to hear from you.

A relevant horticultural qualification or equivalent experience is required. as well as have a Full valid driving licence to transport employees and equipment to site and experience in operating a range of horticultural and associated vehicles and machinery.

So, if you have a passion to make our towns greenspaces attractive, well maintained and clean and the ability to work well as a member of a team, lead employees and work on your own initiative then we look forward to receiving your application.

This is a public facing role so you'll need to show off your fluency in speaking and writing English

About us

Our ambitious Luton 2040 Vision - that no-one in Luton will have to live in poverty - is at the heart of everything we do. We recognise that our people are remarkable, talented, committed and passionate about serving our residents.

The people of Luton depend heavily on this council - and that means our workforce! Are you ready to realise the remarkable and help us deliver our vision?

We welcome applications from all sections of the community and are committed to developing a workforce that reflects the diversity of our borough

Application Process

Because of the nature of this job, it will be necessary for the appropriate level of criminal record disclosure to be undertaken. This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore applicants are required to declare all unspent cautions and convictions; and also any adult cautions (simple or conditional), and spent convictions that are not protected as defined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (as amended in 2020). A person's criminal record will not in itself prevent a person from being appointed to this post. Applicants will not be refused posts because of offences which are not relevant to, and do not place them at or make them a risk in, the role for which they are applying. However in the event of the employment being taken up, any failure to disclose such offence, as detailed above, will result in dismissal or disciplinary action by the Authority.

Benefits

We offer a range of excellent staff benefits which include:

- From 25 to 32 days' annual leave: linked to length of service and grade
- Buying annual leave scheme: buy up to 20 days additional annual leave
- Career Pathways: step up in your career or move into a specialist area
- Pension scheme: with generous employer contributions of up to 20.2 per cent (at July 2023) and 3x salary death in service grant
- Generous relocation package: up to £8,000 (subject to eligibility)
- Employee Assistance Programme: a free, 24/7 confidential counselling and wellbeing support service available to all employees, their partner or spouse and dependent children over 16 still living at home
- Work/life balance: flexible working options including working from home where possible. We welcome requests for flexible working arrangements including part-time hours and alternative working patterns
- Training and support: unlimited access to development courses, mentoring and support and clear career pathways
- Staff offers: includes discounts on your MOT, gym and fitness, restaurants and salons
- Arriva Travel Club: great value savings on local bus travel

Luton Borough Council

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Skilled Gardener