REVOLUTION Bars looks set to become the latest big name chain to come to Southend after it was granted a licence for the town's former HMV building.

The council’s licensing committee decided to approve the bar’s application to serve alcohol at the long-empty venue, all but clearing the way for the chain’s change of use application to be approved, and giving it the all clear to spend £1million and create 50 jobs at the venue.

With more than 60 bars nationwide, the chain’s property director Godfrey Russell echoed an oft-repeated reason for big name chains coming to Southend during the licensing committee hearing.

He praised the council’s clever handling of the town centre and the investment that had gone into regenerating the town.

"I've seen the rise and fall of Southend over the years with Yates's and some bigger brands in the late Nineties and early 2000s,” he told the committee, “and it looks like a lot of investment has been going in - there's a feeling the place has a core, a heart again."

Compare this with celebrity chef Mark Baumann’s reason for kicking off his new steak and lobster chain Bourgee in Southend seafront back in the summer of 2014.

“Southend has had a massive amount of investment put into it,” he told the Echo, “and I believe it’s going to be the next big place to be in the next year or so.”

Bourgee of course had no small investment put into it by the council, £100,000 to be exact, which itself came from a £1.8million grant from the Government to promote economic growth and jobs in the borough.

Since that time, the big names have kept rolling in. Premier Inn opened its second Southend hotel in Eastern Esplanade at the beginning of 2015, coffee chain Caffe Latte opened its first branch in Leigh train station later that year and a second in Westcliff station in March.

The year ended with another chain, Muffin Break, revitalising the former Early Learning Centre in the High Street.

Cineworld also announced it would be moving into the Fossetts Farm development, should it be approved.

In 2016 so far, we have seen H&M open a Home store in the Royals Shopping Centre, McDonald’s refit its two High Street restaurants, Starbucks announce it will take over the Pier Hill kiosk, and East of England catering company Vertas agreed to take over the pier’s Royal Pavilion.

Southend Council leader Ron Woodley has also confirmed the authority is in advanced talks with a “major restaurant chain” to take up a plot of land outside Garon Park.

For Mr Woodley, there was no mystery as to why such big concerns found Southend so attractive.

He said: “Investment is coming in thick and fast and they all see Southend is a growing town which is open for business.

"We said that when we came into office two years ago and of course all this investment does create jobs which means prosperity and growth for the town.

“I’ve always said we need to be more business-minded as a council and my job at the moment is getting council officers to understand the need to do that because, with funding from central government drying up, we will rely even more on business rates in the future.”

Tory opposition leader John Lamb, whose party ran Southend for 14 years before 2014, added: “When we had the administration, we totally supported the High Street and the Business Improvement District and were encouraging investment to come into the town.

“We invested in the High Street ourselves but so did the BID and that has created a very healthy town centre which held up during the recession and the austerity of the country extremely well.”