FASTER OPENING LICENCES

Government is planning to cancel the obligation of applying for an opening licence for small businesses from June 2012 on.

Once the measure is approved, a person who wants to open a small business only will need to do 3 steps, avoiding between 6 and 18 months of delays on the obtention of the final licence.

This measure will be applied only for businesses like small stores, butchers, bakers...and it is important to have the requeriments needed:

• Premises smaller than 300 square meters.
• Annual takings lower than 50 million euros.
  
• Having less than 250 workers.

The negative point is that the measure will not be applied to bars, restaurants, hotels and companies which manage dangerous materials.

The process is the following:

• Presenting a technical report produced by an engineer or technician where it is shown that the business has the requirements.
  
  
• Presenting a document called Declaración Responsable. With that document, the manager is saying that his business has the requeriments needed to run the kind of business presented.

• The fees for the townhall have to be paid. Each townhall has different fees depending on the kind of business.
  

Then once the 3 steps are done, the business can be opened while you are waiting for the final resolution,until that moment, the administration can start inspections in order to check that there are no illegal features in the business. In case of detecting something illegal, the townhall could fine the business and stop or cancel the final licence process.

So this process is like Self-Licencing, because is the company who is declaring that the business has everything right and then the townhall can check it in future. At the moment, many businesses are working without the final resolution approved, because lot of people cannot wait many months or more than a year until they get the licence to open.

Activities Unit to control the businesses licences

The Department of Planning has decreed the creation of the Unit Activities, which has set up human and material resources. Specifically, two civil servants of town hall are part of that Brigade focused over the census of activities and supervising the holding of licenses and payment of fees. This unit will be authorized to visit and check establishments. As material resources will be provided with a vehicle attached to this unit and protocols.

Officials visiting establishments will be identified and credited as officers of the City of Orihuela and never ask for payment of any amount. The guideline is as follows: the unit visits the facility and is identified and requires you to show them the license or the license application and payment of fees. Then they will record your business in a census data and specify the activity data (if is licensed and if fees have been paid). If everything is correct, the establishment becomes final census.

If you only have the application then will be required to pass through the activities department to drive the process and finally obtain the final license and remedy deficiencies for finally obtaining the license. If it is not licensed, disciplinary proceedings will be opened and you will be prompted to initiate the procedures that apply.

"The penalties can range from suspension of activity, from fines to closure of the establishment," said the Town Planning, who has insisted that the goal of creation is to enforce the law, since the City must monitor that all activities are conducted under the rules of safety.