Business first, says candidate

By Noel Murphy
RED TAPE stifling planning bids lodged with City Hall needs to be cut and replaced with a new sense of urgency, according to mayoral candidate Keith Fagg.
A benchmark 30-day turnaround, half the statutory 60 days, should be set to help show Geelong was serious about encouraging business, the hardware boss says in an election manifesto aimed at boosting the local economy.
“There’s a council in South Australia that tries to process planning applications within 24 hours yet here we have people ringing up after three weeks to find the clock has stopped,” he said.
“At the moment, processing has to be done within 60 days. Often even this isn’t achieved.
“Let’s set an internal target of half that 30 days, for straightforward applications to be processed that sends business a message that Geelong can-do.”
Mr Fagg suggested on online process be investigated to determine whether applicants could furnish City Hall with most of the information themselves to cut through a red tape jungle stifling applications.
“If they knew in advance what the council wanted, most people would be happy to provide all the details themselves,” he told the Independent.
“Setting an internal benchmark of a 30-day turnaround for standard planning applications where referral to external bodies is not required would demonstrate a greater urgency in facilitating appropriate projects.’’
Mr Fagg said planning delays were extremely frustrating for business, so City Hall had to scrutinise its resources, systems and processes.
His manifesto stressed top priority to encouraging small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as a key driver of economic activity and jobs.
“They’re the future of Geelong’s economy, the SMEs with 10, 20, 50 employees. We have to encourage them as much as we possibly can.”
Mr Fagg said City Hall needed to adopt a stronger “can-do’’ attitude that helped rather than hampered business.
“Most businesses understand that council has a role to play but enterprise wants local government to understand it better. Business wants to do the right thing but it needs understanding by government.”