Rob Tinlin believes Southend’s Business community deserves celebrating, and never more so than in the challenging year of 2009.

“We want to celebrate what often goes unseen, the sometimes secret successes we might not otherwise hear about,” says Southend’s chief executive and town clerk.

“There are times when patting someone on the back helps them to go that little bit further.”

The role of pat-on-the-back administrator is one Southend Council has taken on, and why it is more than pleased to act as overall sponsor for the Echo’s 2009 Southend Business Awards.

“I have always viewed it as a key function of the council to support and facilitate the business community, especially in a recession,” Rob says.

This role, however, is very much about the art of the possible.

Essex County Council has attracted national publicity thanks to its £50million Bank of Essex scheme. The new bank has offered financial support to the county’s businesses during the credit squeeze.

Southend’s unitary auth-ority lacks the resources to offer large-scale schemes, but in some fields it has the advantage over the county council. “We’re able to be far closer to our own business community, so we have the ability to respond quickly and be innovative,” says Rob.

In practice, this often works on a personal basis. “I can’t walk or drive around town without recognising someone I know who’s in business here, and they don’t hesitate to grab me if there’s some business issue on their minds,” he says.

“Hopefully we’re responsive to the things they tell us.”

The council’s determination to support businesses through the recession has seen the Business Support team bumped up to 12 members.

The team is constantly on the look-out for ways to make life easier for the local business person.

“One example of the way we have adapted,” says Rob, “is we’re interpreting development control policies in a way that’s more in sympathy with business.

“For instance, we’ve permitted Barclays to have a frontage on the High Street, under the old Odeon cinema turret.

“That wouldn’t have happened under our previous policy on development of the upper storey. But now our attitude has been, let’s get the site filled, because filling it will help to boost confidence.”

The council’s most far-reaching initiative has been in the field of rent rebate.

The council has used mailshots to encourage businesses to claim the rebate in a Government-backed support scheme to help small firms through the recession.

“We’ve had a manager wholly dedicated to this,” Rob says. “I like to think it’s because of this commitment we have one of the highest rates for rebate take-up in the UK.”

While saving money for local businesses on the one hand, the council is also actively seeking to help them increase turnover.

As the second-largest employer in Southend after the health sector, the council’s purchasing budget for goods and services runs to millions.

“Our procurement team is quite aggressively pursuing a policy of increased local purchasing,” says Rob.

“We’ve mounted a series of roadshows to demonstrate to local businesses how they can trade with local authorities.

“Many small businesses find this prospect daunting, but we are able to show them it’s relatively easy.”

A third of council purchases are now made within the SS postal code, and 65 per cent within Essex.

These figures have been driven up by removing much of the burden of bureaucracy previously involved in a local government tender.

Rob says: “Small businesses don’t have the time to wade through bureaucracy, but we can help by looking after the bureaucracy for them. And they have really risen to the challenge. There are some marvellous businesses here in Southend.”

Rob describes the overall approach as “recycling local money locally”. But you won’t necessarily see Southend Council’s role flagged up on these initiatives. The council’s role is usually a background one. A typical example is the Business Booster scheme.

Business Booster provides 12 hours’ free business advice to new and growing businesses. The scheme is administered by the business networking scheme, Networking on Sea, an offshoot of the Chamber of Commerce, but the council provides the resources.

“Southend has wonderful businesses. It’s not leadership they need from us,” says Rob.

“The question we have to ask is how can we get behind them to give them support when and where they most need it?

“We have found a range of ways to offer that support, even if these schemes don’t necessarily have the council badge stam-ped on them.”

The combination of private and public effort has worked for Southend, he believes.

One rough but effective measure is the shopfront test. “Retail traders have had a rougher time of it than might appear, but Southend High Street has about half the number of empty units you’ll see in most towns,” he says.

“The business community here is one of the most entrepreneurial places in the UK. But it’s also shown in this very difficult period it has other qualities as well – adaptability and resilience.”

And that, Rob Tinlin believes, is something well worth celebrating.

l The 2009 Southend Business Awards ceremony is on Friday, October 23, at Cliffs Pavilion, Westcliff. Some 90 firms from the Southend area are in line for an award.

As usual, winners’ identities remain a secret until ann-ounced from the stage during the course of the black-tie event. All winners will enter the line-up for the 2010 Essex Countywide Awards.