Grounds & Gardens Operative (XN03)

We are looking to appoint a motivated individual as a Grounds and Gardens Maintenance Operative to work within the Estates External Environment Team. The team are a small group who work trust wide across a number of sites; the new post holder will be predominantly based at the St James University Hospital Grounds workshop.

The position is 37.5 hours per week Monday to Friday (7.5 hour days) and the post holder will be required to participate in the 22 week winter on call rota for gritting and snow clearing between November and March each year.

The role will involve assisting in the day to day maintenance of the grounds and gardens as part of a small mobile team, the work includes cleanliness and tidiness of grounds, gardens, roads, paths and paved areas, the care of lawns, flower beds, trees and shrubberies, maintenance of roads, footpaths and other external areas as well as surface water drains and to ensure the external environment is free from hazards.

The candidate will be required to operate vehicles and machinery as part of the post including but not restricted to Tractors, ride on mowers, chain saws, hedge trimmers and strimmers., The Successful candidate will be part of an 8 person team working trust wide. The role is to ensure the Trusts site grounds & gardens are maintained to a high standard in accordance with legislation & codes of practice.

The work will include routine & planned gardening duties including weed control, propagation & the maintenance of annuals, perennials, shrubs, trees, & hedges as necessary. As well as a full range of landscaping duties, including paving, walling etc. undertake snow clearing, & gritting and other routine winter duties. Maintain external and roof surface water drain gullies and carry out minor repairs to roads and paths.

The successful candidate will be expected to undertake all monitoring procedures for hand arm vibration and noise exposure in accordance with the Health & Safety executive requirements including completion of exposure logs.

They will be responsible for tools, plant and materials which are used within the scope of their work within the Estates Department.

The candidate will be required to operate vehicles and machinery as part of the post including but not restricted to Tractors, ride on mowers, chain saws, hedge trimmers and strimmers.

Essential qualifications - NVQ level 2 in Horticulture and a Current Drivers licence., This job can involve prolonged periods of physical activity in extreme weather and therefore the post holder must be capable of undertaking such duties.

The successful candidate will be required to drive the trust vehicles so will need to have a full current British drivers licence.

The External Environment team are a small group within the operational estates department; it includes site clearance and grounds maintenance operatives as well as a head Gardener and Estates Officer.

This is a hard working team who have a physically demanding role working in all weather conditions including working out of hours to keep the hospital open in adverse weather.

The team are based at St James but use trust provided transport to travel to all the main and several satellite sites operated by the Trust.