Estate Assistant

Coventry City Council; United Kingdom; On-site; GBP 20,000 - 30,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a forward-thinking organization as an Estate Assistant at a beautiful country park. This role involves supporting the maintenance and visitor experience at a renowned park, engaging with visitors, and promoting the park's facilities. Ideal candidates will possess basic maintenance and horticultural knowledge, effective communication skills, and a willingness to work outdoors. If you are passionate about nature and community engagement, this opportunity offers a chance to make a real difference in a vibrant and welcoming environment. Enjoy a rewarding role that contributes to the park's ongoing excellence and visitor satisfaction.

Benefits

Guaranteed Interview Scheme

Support for application process

Diverse workplace culture

Qualifications

• Knowledge of basic maintenance and horticultural operations.
• Verbal communication skills for public interaction.

Responsibilities

• Patrol the park ensuring visitors enjoy its facilities.
• Carry out routine maintenance and basic horticultural tasks.

Skills

Verbal communication skills

Basic maintenance knowledge

Horticultural operations

Ability to lift and carry materials

Safe use of tools

Tools

Strimmer

Leaf blower

Secateurs

Bowsaw

Job description

We value diverse perspectives and experiences and are striving to create a workplace culture that is inclusive, accepting of all, and free from discrimination and bias. Coombe Country Park is set on the outskirts of Coventry on the Brinklow Road. It is managed as part of the Park Service for the city council. Coombe has won many awards for its quality and excellence in management, conservation, visitor experience, and education. These include SSSI status for 40 years, Green Flag (Park and Green spaces excellence award), Visit England visitor attraction quality scheme, Natural England’s Country Park Accreditation, and Trip Advisor certificate of excellence for consistently high ratings in our customer reviews. Our staff provide high-quality provision in terms of green space care, development, and restoration based on an important site for biodiversity amongst the wider ancient woodland landscape setting and the cultural & heritage setting of the listed building (Coombe Abbey Hotel). We are visitor-focused, family-friendly, and encourage visitors to explore the site for heritage and biodiversity.

Our Values

In line with our One Coventry Values, we want to ensure that our communities are represented across our workforce. A vital part of this is ensuring we are a truly inclusive organisation that encourages diversity in all respects, including diversity of thinking. We particularly welcome applicants from minority ethnic, LGBT+, disabled, and neurodiverse communities to make a real difference to our residents so that equity and respect remain at the heart of everything we do.

Our Values are:

1. Open and fair: We are fair, open, and transparent.
2. Nurture and develop: We help and encourage everyone to be their best and do their best.
3. Engage and empower: We talk and listen to others, working together as one.
4. Create and innovate: We embrace new ways of working to continuously improve.
5. Own and be accountable: We work together to deliver the best services for our residents.
6. Value and respect: We put diversity and inclusion at the heart of all we do.

What is the job role?

We are looking for people to join our team as Estate Assistants to support the maintenance of Coombe Abbey Park, undertaking various grounds maintenance, cleansing, and retail activities on site. You will be ensuring a good visitor experience and will be assisting with improving standards and the continuous development of the park. The main day-to-day duties of the role include:

1. Patrol the park ensuring that visitors can fully enjoy its facilities.
2. Carry out routine maintenance including clearing litter, cleaning, and basic horticultural tasks such as pruning, leaf clearing, and path edging.
3. Actively promote Coombe's facilities through face-to-face interaction. Encouraging positive involvement with the site by providing information on things to see/do and how to get involved in activities and events.

To apply for this role, you MUST have a full UK driving license and be available to work weekends and bank holidays on a rota basis. This post is exempted under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and as such appointment to this post will be conditional upon the receipt of a satisfactory response to a check of police records via Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).

Who are we looking for?

The ideal candidate will have:

1. Knowledge of basic maintenance and horticultural operations.
2. Verbal communication skills - communicating with the general public, external organisations, and other employees, face to face and over the telephone.
3. Able and willing to carry out routine cleaning work of Coombe's facilities.
4. Able to lift and carry materials and resources.
5. Experience in the safe use of a variety of tools e.g. strimmer, leaf blower, secateurs, bowsaw.
6. Able and willing to work outside for long periods.

For full details on the application process please read the attached document on our jobs page labelled 'Coventry City Council Application Process'. If you need help or support to complete your application, please visit our accessibility page to see how we can assist you.

Guaranteed Interview Scheme - As part of our commitment to inclusion, we offer guaranteed interviews for specific groups of people. To qualify, you'll need to meet the minimum requirements for the role and identify with one of the below criteria:

1. Members of the Armed Forces and veterans
2. Are currently in care or have previously been in care
3. If you consider yourself to be disabled or if you have a long-term health condition

If there is any evidence of a candidate using AI to complete their application, then the application will be rejected unless the candidate can provide a justification which the Council considers to be reasonable. Interview date: 12th May 2025.

About Coventry

Coventry has a proud, innovative, and creative spirit that throughout its history has seen communities come together to tackle problems and bring about real social change. We are cutting-edge, challenging, youthful, vibrant, and diverse.

At Coventry, we are committed to excellence in everything we do. With around 5100 staff from a range of different backgrounds, our aim is to recruit and develop talented people who will focus on our customers, take responsibility, work together, and find better ways of doing things.

To deliver the best services to our residents, we need the best people working for us to make a difference to our communities.

If you join us, we will provide a fantastic rewards and benefits package - to find out more please visit Coventry Council Vacancies.