Parking Ranger

Job summary

What you’ll do…

Forestry England is part of the Forestry Commission. We look after more land and more trees than any other organisation in the country. We provide hundreds of car parks, maintain thousands of miles of trails, plant millions of trees, look after wildlife, manage vegetation, and restore heathlands and rivers. We have to raise most of the money needed for this work ourselves, with less than 20% of our income coming from core government funding. Paid-for parking applies at a number of our forests. The money raised from our car parks supports the vital work we do.

Parking is an important service we provide to our visitors. Sitting within the South Forest District team, the South District Parking Rangers will ensure the smooth running of paid-for car parks within the New Forest, protect important habitats, and provide outstanding customer service to our visitors.

Please see the job description below for more information and details about what we need from you.

Where you’ll work…

Our South England Forest District team is made up of around 170 people with a diverse range of roles - from foresters and wildlife rangers to civil engineers, and ecologists to marketing professionals. We all contribute towards the management of 46,000 hectares of public forest estate that stretch from Sussex to Dorset, and from Berkshire to the Isle of Wight. Nearly all of our forests are within either a National Park or Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Much of this forest is of high national importance for nature conservation and wildlife, and of international importance for biodiversity. South England Forest District is therefore responsible for land that includes Special Areas of Conservation (for habitats), Special Protection Areas (for birds) and Ramsar sites (for wetlands). We also provide public access and recreation in our forests, with nearly 50 million visits every year to South England Forest District.

The working days may include any day from Monday to Sunday. The roles involve regular weekend work, as well as public holidays and/or privilege days, including early morning starts and late evening finishes and occasional car park visits during the night (in pairs). To accommodate this, a rostered 7-day contract will be issued as standard. There is also an expectation that this role may be required to be on-call on a rostered basis to act as a weekend and evening escalation contact.

Job description

Customer & Public Support

• Represent Forestry England by providing a visible presence to ensure a positive visitor experience.

• Be a visible presence to support public acceptance of parking charges.

• Answer questions from visitors and give information in an inclusive, positive and friendly way.

• Promote and enable visitors to buy Forestry England membership on-site through the use of a hand-held device.

• Answer customer and stakeholder enquiries about the introduction of parking charges.

Enforcement of car park charges

• Undertake the monitoring and issuing of Parking Charge Notices to vehicles which have contravened the New Forest Parking Terms and Conditions, in line with the guidelines set out by Forestry England’s National Parking Team, our parking enforcement supplier and the British Parking Association.

• Undertake legal parking enforcement within recognised areas, such as car parks (non-payment) and prohibited areas (no parking areas) such as gateways, roadside verges and access roads.

• Enforcement within car parks will involve the use of a hand-held device to photograph and record vehicle registration numbers. Parking Charge Notices (PCNs) will be issued by post where necessary.

• In areas outside official car parks, where parking is prohibited, the issue of PCNs will be directly onto vehicle windscreens.

• The post holder may be required to wear and operate a Body Worn Video camera while carrying out parking enforcement duties.

• Ensure enforcement is carried out in accordance with legal guidance and is fair and accurate, to ensure complaints and challenges are minimised.

Responsible visitor enjoyment

• Deliver appropriate messages to the public about responsible visitor behaviour, and professionally manage and resolve potential conflicts.

• Engage neighbouring landowners to address displacement parking and discuss/propose possible solutions in order to maintain environmental standards, as set out in the HRA

Monitoring and Mitigation Strategy.

• Plan and run public engagement/education and enforcement activity to ensure responsible visitor behaviour and acceptance of parking charges by stakeholders, residents, business community and visitors.

• Represent Forestry England by interacting with and seeking engagement opportunities with complex groups of stakeholders, including the National Park Authority and Commoners (to protect their grazing).

• Supervise the installation, repair and maintenance of parking infrastructure by external contractors and suppliers on site, including management of health and
safety. This will include the supervision of roadside verge protection works where the post-holder has identified a problem with displacement parking and associated
environmental damage, as required by the HRA Monitoring and Mitigation Strategy for all roadside verge habitat in the New Forest SPA.

• Help ensure visitors enjoy the New Forest responsibly by legally enforcing Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs) through the issue of fixed penalty notices (after training and authorisation). These ban the lighting of fires of any type, including barbeques, and the placing/ throwing/ dropping of items likely to cause a fire, such as lit cigarettes. They also ban the feeding and petting of ponies or donkeys.

Operations & Equipment Management

• Ensure the continuous operation of parking payment infrastructure and technology.

• Troubleshoot and carry out maintenance of parking infrastructure using hand tools.

• Ensure that car park charging signs remain visible and in good repair to enable the legal enforcement of parking charges. Carry out repairs/replacement of signs using hand tools and spares kept in the works vehicle.

• Arrange the servicing and repair of car park machines and signs, ordering supplies and supervising external contractors and suppliers on site.

• Work closely with the South District team and communicate with other staff to ensure smooth handovers and consistent messaging.

• Carry out the cleaning of signs and car park payment machines.

• Carry out minor repairs of signs and parking infrastructure.

• Ensure H&S compliance of parking charging infrastructure and facilities is monitored and well-managed.

Visitor facilities

• Report fly-tipping and abandoned vehicles.

• Visually check car parks and associated recreation facilities and report any issues/tape off hazards.

• Monitor and report car park surface maintenance requirements.

• Litter-pick in and around car parks as necessary.

• Check and report toilet cleaning/ maintenance issues.

• Lock/unlock toilets and gates/barriers as necessary.

• Close/open car parks in case of hazards/ maintenance operations.

• Top up and tidy publications and leaflet dispensers as necessary.

Carry out other related tasks reasonably requested by your line manager.

Person specification

Essential professional and technical experience

• Willingness and ability to work outdoors in all weathers and to carry out manual tasks.

• Knowledge of basic health and safety requirements when working outdoors.

• Experience of working in a customer facing role, including experience of handling complaints and enquiries in a polite, positive, inclusive and informative way.

• Proven ability and willingness to work both alone and as part of a team, communicating regularly and sharing responsibilities.

• Ability to use handheld electronic devices or mobile apps for operational tasks.

• Competence in using email, basic Microsoft Office applications, and reporting tools.

• Ability to monitor and enforce rules or regulations with tact and professionalism.

• Experience of handling potentially challenging situations or conflict calmly and appropriately.

• Ability to carry out basic maintenance, cleaning, or repairs of equipment and facilities.

• Experience of recording and reporting incidents accurately.

• Ability to drive a vehicle for work purposes.

• This is a customer-facing role, and therefore requires a high level of fluency in spoken and written English to ensure clear and effective communication.

Desirable professional and technical experience

• A working knowledge of risk assessments and safe working in an outdoor setting.

• Previous experience of working in parking operations and/or enforcement, facilities management, or countryside site management.

• Experience of working in an enforcement role involving issuing notices or penalties.

• Awareness of environmental protection issues and the importance of safeguarding sensitive habitats.

• Understanding of Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs) and their enforcement.

• Experience of promoting or selling products/memberships in a customer-facing environment.

• Experience of collaborating with enforcement agencies or contractors.

• First Aid training or certification.

• Basic repair and maintenance skills for signs, payment machines, or other site infrastructure

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Communicating and Influencing
• Making Effective Decisions
• Working Together
• Managing a Quality Service

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £30,105, Forestry Commission contributes £8,721 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Benefits…

Alongside your salary, Forestry England contributes an average of 28.97% towards your pension. You will become a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension Scheme.

• 25 days holiday a year, raising by one day every year’s service, up to 30 days (pro-rated for part time employees) plus additional days off such as bank holidays.
• STaR is our employee benefits scheme offering discounts on everyday supermarket shopping, as well as other things such as hotel stays clothes, mobile phones, other electrical items, medical and car insurance, holidays, gym discounts, household bills, Headspace wellbeing app.
• Free parking at Forestry England sites and free entry to our National Arboretums at Westonbirt and Bedgebury.
• A commitment to lifelong learning through career development. Forestry England will support your career development in a variety of ways, including continual professional development, support for individual learning plans and sponsored membership of professional bodies.

Read more about the benefits on the Forestry England website.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

How to apply…

You will be asked to write a 200 word statement on your relevant experience and career history, along with a personal statement of no more than 500 words. You will be assessed on both during sifting. More details about how to apply are listed on the application form.

You will be assessed on your experience and behaviour based questions during your interview.

The Behaviours being assessed at interview are –

• Communicating and Influencing
• Making effective decisions
• Working together
• Managing a quality service

Successful candidates will undergo a criminal record check and the government baseline personnel security standard check.

If you require any reasonable adjustments, please email fcrecruitmentteam@forestryengland.uk.

If you're planning to use AI to support your application, please ensure you've read our guidelines here first.

Read more about our application process and working with us on the Forestry England website.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : FC Recruitment Team
• Email : fcrecruitmentteam@forestryengland.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : fcrecruitmentteam@forestryengland.uk

Further information

Our recruitment process is underpinned by the principle of appointment on the basis of fair and open competition and appointment on merit, as outlined in the Civil Service Commissioners’ Recruitment Principles.If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with these principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should in the first instance contact FCE by email: englandhr.services@forestryengland.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive, you can contact the Civil Service Commission, which regulates all Civil Service recruitment.

Attachments

Forestry England Job Description Parking Ranger (PB6A) (1) Opens in new window (pdf, 143kB)