This is big chance to transform fortunes
THIS week, the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework proposals went out to public consultation.
It’s a major document which sets out the building blocks for the future growth and prosperity for Greater Manchester, but also includes specific proposals for Rochdale.
Although it’s a fancy title, in short it’s a big plan which maps out how the different boroughs will use land over the next 20 years to deliver the new homes and employment opportunities needed to cater for our growing populations.
As well as tackling the housing shortage and creating new jobs, the plan is aimed at addressing the imbalance in opportunities between the north and south of England as part of the Northern Powerhouse.
To enable better planning, all 10 local authorities worked together to create the plan, which has four main elements, one of which, the Northern Gateway, covers Rochdale, Oldham and Bury
Working with Bury and Oldham councils, Rochdale has put together proposals for the Northern Gateway, a collection of sites along the M62 corridor which will be one of four major growth areas of the city region.
The Northern Gateway represents the biggest growth opportunity in Greater Manchester. It will radically change the economic landscape of the borough, providing a major new growth area to the north of Greater Manchester, which will be able to attract both national and international businesses, by re-distributing jobs and opportunities from the south to the north of conurbation, parts of which have lagged behind economically.
By extending existing business parks and creating urban extensions, the plans will create 19,000 jobs and 15,500 homes in Rochdale up to 2035. That equates to 775 new homes a year, close to double to current rate.
The spatial strategy gives our borough a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to transform our fortunes and spearhead the much needed economic recovery we desperately need.
Rochdale has high levels of deprivation, which simply don’t match the huge ambition we have for our borough and our residents. The Northern Gateway proposal gives us the chance to change this by creating thousands of new jobs and high quality homes.
We have a huge talent base in Rochdale, with an outstanding sixth form college and vocational college and more young people going into apprenticeships than any other area in Greater Manchester. We don’t want young people to have to leave the borough because they can’t fulfil their career aspirations here or find the kind of home that they aspire to live in.
Rochdale borough’s employment rate this year is just 63 per cent (86,300), 8pc below the Greater Manchester average and 10pc below the UK average.
We need to create a minimum of 8,000 jobs just to reach the Greater Manchester average.
The 19,000 jobs the Northern Gateway will bring will transform the economic fortunes of our borough.
The borough’s key business parks, including Stakehill and Heywood Distribution Park, are almost at capacity and Kingsway has a shortage of larger plots some businesses need. This shows the huge demand we have from companies who want to come and invest in Rochdale. By extending these areas, we can cater for this demand and bring in more money and jobs into our borough, boosting our prosperity.
This is our chance to create the space needed to grow, to attract new jobs and homes we so desperately need. It will be supported by infrastructure investment in transport, roads, schools and public services. The plan affords us more opportunities to create new jobs than any other borough.
I understand the concerns voiced by some about the environmental impact of building on some of our borough’s green spaces, but our priority is to build on brownfield sites first although we will still need to look at some greenbelt, particularly to make the Northern Employment Gateway a reality.
Having said that, after 20 years Rochdale’s greenbelt covering the whole borough will shrink from 63pc to 58pc. We will still be by far the greenest borough in Greater Manchester. That’s a price worth paying to provide the thousands of new and better skilled jobs residents of Rochdale borough so greatly need.
Visit greatermanchester-ca.gov. uk to find out more and have your say. Coun Richard Farnell Leader of Rochdale council
SEIZING GREEN BELT
FRONT page of Rochdale Observer ‘This is our big chance to seize power.’
This seizing power includes being able to build on greenbelt land.
What a great idea, bulldoze some more playing fields and cut down more trees.
Rochdale’s riddled with brownfield sites, so why use greenbelt?
Could it be some sort of sweetener?
Greenbelt is much better because it will maximize building contractors’ profits. C Matthew Spenwood Road Littleborough
WIDER RANGE IMPROVES CARE
THE council’s plans to expand and enhance the range of accommodation and support services for people with learning disabilities across the borough are to be welcomed.
As a long-standing member of the Learning Disability Partnership Board, I support any proposal which will improve the services we provide.
It is clear that the existing group living model of care does not work for everyone.
Some people would like to be more independent and live in extra care types of accommodation and others, when their health deteriorates, need services in place that meet both their learning disability needs and their long term health condition needs, including dementia.
The proposed increased range of services will give people more choice and control over their daily life and better meet their needs, but people will only move if it is the best choice for them.
The council has been clear all along that no one will be forced to move into a different kind of accommodation and support service.
It is also vital that all stakeholders have the opportunity to tell us their views, which is why I welcome the extension of the consultation period.
Over the coming days we will consult further with service users on the proposals.
Our proposals are fair, reasonable and progressive.
Doing nothing is simply not an option. At the recent council meeting, I outlined how we are recognising that people have different and individual needs. The one size fits all approach of the past simply doesn’t work anymore.
The reality is that our plans will significantly improve the range of services available to people with learning disabilities and their families in the borough.
That can only be a good thing. Coun Billy Sheerin Assistant cabinet member for adult services
GROUP IS TOO PEACEFUL
I WANT to tell you how disappointed I am.
I have trawled, in vain, through last week’s Observers looking for a letter or report from Philip Gilligan on he and his group’s candle lit vigil outside the Russian Embassy in London.
You see, I thought that after his vilification of Alastair Campbell in your pages, he would want to do the same to Vladimir Putin for his annexation of Ukraine, his carpet bombing of Allepo in Syria, which is causing untold misery and killing so many children, and his threats to the Baltic states.
How can a so called peace group accept this, when they are sure that Mr Campbell was responsible for the Iraq war?
So, I thought a protest and a vigil was the least they would do.
What is the point of a peace group if it protests about our armed forces, the RAF and Trident with such vitriol and yet ignores that the Russians have increased the numbers of nuclear weapons that they have stockpiled, including one new one which they claim can wipe out the UK with one shot?
They are expansionist warmongers of a type not seen since 1941 and made the world the most insecure it has been since the strutting of the Soviets during the Cold War, and yet, to my knowledge, our peace group has not made a single utterance about them, nor condemnation of them.
Strange or what? T F Nicholls