Poole, Purbeck and Dorset County councils win FSB awards for supporting small businesses

The FSB Small Business Friendly awards identified the best small business friendly initiatives undertaken by the region’s local authorities, which have benefited the county’s small businesses, and placed Poole, Purbeck and Dorset County Council as winners:

Most Innovative ‘Small Business Friendly’ Programme, Project or Campaign
Dorset County Council and Purbeck District Council for their joint initiative, the ‘Dorset Innovation Park – Enterprise Zone,’ which is providing a vast range of benefits for businesses. Working together, the councils have shown commitment to providing a range of initiatives that are designed to help small businesses realise their full potential.

Best All Round Small Business Friendliness
Poole Borough Council for its continuing commitment and support to a wide range of initiatives designed to help local SMEs. Various excellent business support initiatives including a successful ‘Small Business Saturday’ campaign, ongoing support of the Dorset Engineering and Manufacturing Cluster and new cyber alliance website, and a successful business profile as part of the European Maritime Day.

The awards were introduced by Ken Moon, the FSB Wessex lead member who praised the councils for their commitment to small businesses within their respective areas.

Ken said, “These awards aim to recognise, and publically acknowledge, the significant work undertaken by local authorities, in supporting the micro and small business community. FSB sets out to lobby local and national government, but we also realise that we must recognise the work that councils undertake, which in essence, helps our members.

“Similar to pressures on many businesses, we are aware of financial pressures on councils as well, and will try to acknowledge any organisations that go ‘above and beyond’ what may normally be expected in order to ensure that the small business voice is not only heard but acted upon.”

Neil Eames, development manager for Wessex added, “We hope that the awards provide a platform for councils to share their successes in promoting and championing local economic development. It provides us with an excellent opportunity to promote the best examples of good work to all councils across the county, and further afield. This will go some way to help to drive the improvement of local government delivery and performance to support our local business community. We were delighted that all councils within Dorset were represented at the presentation this year, showing their commitment to small businesses. The nominations also show that a great deal of effort is being made, and we look forward to working alongside the councils to keep this momentum going.”

The FSB exists to promote an environment in which small businesses can survive and thrive, and its 3,800 members within Dorset look to local government to help create such an environment. It is clear that many local authorities are trying to help stimulate, and provide an impetus to, the British economy through championing the needs of the small business community.