Municipal Economic Support eases building plan approvals for local businesses

The Municipal Economic Support unit, in partnership with the Drakenstein Municipality, implemented the Collaborator Extension Project which involved the design and development of a Building Control Portal that allows clients to submit building plan applications online, via the web. This, along with technical pro-cess enhancements to current municipal electronic systems, intends to efficiently support the building control function within the municipality and streamline required processes and approvals.

A benefit of the project is that local businesses realise savings through experiencing less red tape costs as a result of reduction in timeframes of approvals, and in the easing of unnecessary complexity in finalising building plan applications. More importantly, the portal will over time have the enhanced capability of allowing applicants to track their applications through the approval processes and establish where it is in the approval process at any given time.

This portal has reduced the approval time for plans from 32 days to 15 days.

The Department of Economic Development and Tourism has also rolled the portal out to more municipalities along the West Coast including Matzikama, Saldanha Bay, Bergriver, Cedarberg.

Lauren Waring The Executive Director: Planning and Development at Drakenstein Municipality indicated that the partnership with the Department of Economic Development and Tourism was a valuable one, and that the new system significantly boosted staff morale. “It was also interesting seeing the rise in the number of compliments by satisfied applicants that the unit started receiving”.

DEDAT has thus, through sound system development and the fostering of partnerships, been able to deliver key support to a critical element of municipal service delivery which is capable of being replicated to other municipalities across the province.