Retail hours to change

The Shire of Plantagenet is one step closer to extended retail trading hours after its proposed application to the Department of Commerce received a positive response from public submissions.

The Shire council passed a motion last Tuesday to go ahead with the application to extend Sunday trading until 5pm and to include public holidays.

Mt Barker Co-operative chief executive Gary Tempany said he supported the extension.

“It gives people an opportunity to use the shops for a longer period so it provides them with more flexibility,” he said.

A Shire officers’ report outlined the submissions that had been put forward regarding the application.

“At the time of this report only three submissions were received and these were all supportive of the proposal to apply for an extension of retail trading hours,” the report said.

In 2008, the Shire requested approval from the Department of Consumer and Employment Protection for businesses in the Mt Barker town site to trade on Sundays.

This was extended to the whole Shire in 2010 and was approved by the minister for commerce.

The initial request for Sunday trading originated from the Mt Barker Co-op, which at the time was happy to trade until 3pm on Sundays. The Co-op Supa IGA has now requested an extension, and because of the ownership structure of the supermarket, it cannot apply for individual business concessions relating to trading hours.

The applications for trading extensions in 2008 and 2010 did not include public holidays.

The current application addresses this, with only Christmas Day and Good Friday specified as non-trading days.