Site Manager of Bedfords Park Nature Discovery Centre

Bedfords Park Nature Discovery Centre,

Bedfords Park Nature Discovery Centre
Broxhill Road, Havering-atte-Bower, Essex, RM4 1QH

A Site Manager is required to run our Nature Discovery Centre at Bedfords Park near Havering-atte-Bower in Havering.

Once a privately owned estate, the nature reserve at Bedfords Park, near Havering-atte-Bower, is one of Havering’s largest parks covering 215 acres of historic parkland and valuable habitats including home to a herd of captive red deer, wildflower meadows, exotic trees, woodpeckers, butterflies, dragonflies and damselflies. The upper section of the park offers a more landscaped parkland, while the lower section is managed for wildlife.

Built on the site of the former mansion offering superb views across the borough to London, our Nature Discovery Centre offers visitors a warm welcome and the opportunity to find out about the wildlife within Bedford’s Park whilst enjoying hot and cold refreshments and a gift shop, run by a friendly team and wonderful volunteers who are passionate about providing fantastic customer service to our visitors.

As the Site Manager at Bedfords Park Nature Discovery Centre, the post holder will line manage a small team of employees alongside a volunteer team to deliver an outstanding visitor experience, ensuring the Nature Discovery Centre is a welcoming, safe, clean, pleasant and inspiring place to visit.

Essex Wildlife Trust has nine other Nature Discovery Centres across Essex, each with their own Site Manager underpinned by a Visitor Engagement Area Manager and Head of Visitor Attractions, which the post holder will work alongside to share ideas and collaborative to ensure our sites continue to be an engaging place to visit.

The post holder will be responsible for delivering the day-to-day operations (administrative, retail, and food and beverage), overseeing maintenance, inventory, budgets and people management, event planning and ensuring commercial targets are met (food and beverage (café), retail, donations and memberships to Essex Wildlife Trust).

This role is well suited to applicants with prior experience of working in a commercial, visitor attraction environment with experience of catering/hospitality and retail offerings. It is essential that the successful person is passionate about providing a positive visitor experience, can manage people including volunteers, understands health and safety responsibilities including food preparing and storing compliance together with an interest in wildlife and working for a charity that protects wildlife for the future and people of Essex.

The Park itself is managed by London Borough of Havering Council and building relationships with the Park Managers and Rangers will be pivotal to this role.

The position is a permanent role working 37.5 hours per week between Monday and Sunday (five out of seven days) on a rota basis to include weekend and Bank Holiday working.

For more information about our Bedfords Park Nature Discovery Centre, please visit essexwt.org.uk/nature-reserves/bedfords or an informal discussion about the role, please contact elizabetho@essexwt.org.uk or jobs@essexwt.org.uk.

Essex Wildlife Trust are the county’s leading conservation charity, committed to protecting wildlife and inspiring a lifelong love of nature; and we would love you to join our committed and enthusiastic team. Our values are Impactful, Collaborative, United and Proactive.

To make an application, please complete an application form via our website by 1:00pm on 27 March 2023. The interviews will be held on 04 April 2023 at our Langdon Nature Discovery Centre.

Essex Wildlife Trust is committed to equal opportunities and maintaining a safe and secure environment for all children and young people. The role of a Site Manager will involve working in regulated activity with children and young people, being the responsible person during site events and Duke of Edinburgh sessions. Therefore, the successful applicant for this position will be subject to vetting checks including an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check with a barred list check. Please note, it is an offence to apply for this position if barred from engaging in regulated activity relevant to children.