Already home to more businesses than any other local government precinct, the City of Stirling has further signalled its commerce-friendly regime with a new program designed to cut red tape and streamline regulation approvals.
Already home to more businesses than any other local government precinct, the City of Stirling has further signalled its commerce-friendly regime with a new program designed to cut red tape and streamline regulation approvals.
Stirling, which is also the largest local government in Western Australia, is home to 11,500 businesses, the majority of them small businesses.
The new program, called ‘Small Business Living in Harmony with Our Community’, involves a number of initiatives to help small business registration, and was made possible by a $187,000 grant from the federal government as part of its Regulation Reduction Incentive Fund.
The initiatives include ending the need for businesses to apply for annual signage approval renewals, and an online self-assessment tool to help business owners determine the feasibility of a business within a particular locality.
Stirling approvals manager Andrew Gillot said the online self-assessment allowed business owners to quickly and conveniently compare various properties for the suitability of their business, potentially saving time and money.
“In the past, many small businesses would establish themselves only to find that they were in conflict with the area’s zoning, there was inadequate parking or a noise abatement issue,” Mr Gillot told WA Business News.
“The self-assessment tool will highlight many of these potential mistakes generally not identified by business proponents.”
The online self-assessment will be incorporated into the city’s website, where a business owner can log on, identify the locality they wish to establish their business in, and answer a number of questions in relation to the proposed use.
The assessment tool then checks the city’s zoning database to establish initially if the proposal conflicts with the zoning.
If it is permissible, the site then checks technical requirements, for example parking, disabled access signage, or food establishment standards.
The website will also carry information useful for business planning and marketing strategies previously only available through paid subscription, including building approvals data and commentary on trends.
Some aspects of the program to have already been implemented by the city include the removal of annual sign licence renewals, and the use of online home business registrations through the city’s website.
The city will also install an IT kiosk at the Stirling business incubator in Balcatta, to encourage small business owners to use the online development programs, in addition to the marketing and promotional seminars already available.
Business owner and Stirling Business Association president, Natalie Sharman, believes the new program will foster a better relationship between business owners and the local government authority, by reducing the burden of compliance in certain areas.
“For businesses wanting to either move within, or businesses looking to relocate to, the City of Stirling, the online self-assessment…will be a valuable tool,” Ms Sharman said.
“The City of Stirling is very pro-active with the business community, and the benefits of this project will be seen for years to come.”
The online self-assessment tool is unique to the City of Stirling and, once fully developed, could potentially be made available to other local governments.
