I just got some Michelin Energy E3B's 165/70/R13 79T not so long back on my Favorit. I have noticed that after getting them up to 30psi, the recommended pressure for fully laden/motorway driving, they still appear a little "flat" at their contact point with the ground. I was wondering if this was the way they should be, or if it was worth adding a few psi's to reduce this flatness and potentially improve fuel consumption.

This site Car Bibles : The Wheel and Tyre Bible mentions something about a -10% theory, therefore you should pump your tyres up to 10% less than the max psi indicated on the side wall.

a couple of PSI above standard i'm sure wont do any harm , i'm currently running my Fab VRS at 3 PSI above standard for the same reason and there has been no noticeable problems

That's his theory, and a lot of that stuff seems to be based on North American tyres, which are typically harder compounds than European tyres. Saying which I've just put my Toyos up 2PSi from the data plate, but that's to try and counter an issue with the edge blocks looking rounded all round.