Skilled Grounds Maintenance Operative

Skilled Gardener- Full Time

You will need to be very good and experienced to apply for this role

Location: The Palace of Westminster Houses of Parliament / London

Hourly Rate: Up to 18.83 per hour

Contract type: Permanent if all goes well

Working hours: 3 days (24hrs) working within The Palace of Westminster Houses of Parliament.
2 days as a skilled gardener on a separate site around the same location, if full-time hours required- 40hrs)

About the role
Our client currently provides horticultural & landscaping services for the Palace of Westminster Estate. This is an exciting opportunity for a skilled & experienced horticulturalist to get involved with the preparations around events like the State Opening of Parliament. There may at times be requests coming from multiple stakeholders (the Speaker's Office, the Ceremonial Works Office, or the Service Delivery Manager) all at once that will be reactive & the candidate will be required to support the Head Gardener in managing these complex pressures.

Responsibilities
Regular site inspection
Clearance of litter, debris and detritus
Grass cutting, edging and cultural operations
Weeding, pruning and dead-heading of planted areas, including containers
Re-mulching / top-dressing planted areas and hedge bases
Hedge cutting and maintenance
Pleaching trees
Hard surface weed control
Hard surface cleansing, including sweeping and pressure washing
Maintenance of gravel areas
Leaf clearing - all areas
Green roof maintenance
Irrigation generally
Maintenance of internal plants, including trees at PCH

In addition, you may be asked to support in the delivery of ad-hoc works, such as:
Re-instatement of lawn areas following events
Emergency tree work
Replacement planting
Improvements to the green roof
Site improvement work

Requirements

You will be required to possess the stipulated level of security vetting. We would ask that any successful applicant proactively engages with this vetting process as soon as an offer has been made, since it can take several weeks for the process to run its course.
N.B. A requirement of the vetting procedure is to supply HMRC evidence of the previous 3 years' employment.
Demonstratable high-horticultural skills and knowledge, backed up by a formal Horticultural qualification (equiv. L2 NVQ/RHS Hort).
Demonstratable experience on working with multiple stakeholders within the field of horticulture/landscaping.
Awareness of equality and diversity, health and safety and safeguarding.
Excellent people skills including team working, problem solving and the ability to be calm and decisive in challenging situations
A flexible approach to work
Harness Training would be desirable.

Starts ASAP

Please send a CV or call to apply