‘Rochdale should be a gateway to city centre’
ROCHDALE’S regeneration chief has set out his ‘whizz-bang’ vision for transforming the area around the town’s railway station.
Passengers who board at Rochdale can be in Manchester city centre within 15 minutes, giving the town an advantage over its city region rivals.
And Councillor John Blundell believes Rochdale can get ahead of the game by capitalising on its strong transport connections with Manchester, Leeds, Bradford and beyond by building homes to attract ambitious young professionals.
But to do this, the cabinet member for regeneration, business, skills and employment, says it is vital to provide the type of housing they want, close to its main transport hubs.
Coun Blundell believes it is vital to ‘rethink’ the whole area around Rochdale railway station if the town is to emerge as one of Greater Manchester’s most desirable places to live.
“We have to the capture that market of young, energetic people in the city centre looking for cheaper rents, or don’t want city centre life but they want to work there,” he said.
“It’s by far the biggest railway station in terms of usage outside Manchester city centre, but we don’t make proper use of it. It should be a gateway to Bradford, Leeds and the city centre.”
Not that he believes the area wants for features to build this ‘appealing gateway’ around - noting the Grade II* listed St John the Baptist RC church, the soon-to-beredeveloped fire service museum and the transport infrastructure.
And he also says it’s time to start using the rear of the station as ‘part of the station, not the back of the station’.
He said: “We’ve got all the assets, if this was in central Manchester, with the church, the fire station museum, tram stop, the train station, a lot more would be done.”
Coun Blundell says he would personally like to see the area around the front of the station – which he describes as ‘a fantastic townscape’ – transformed into a European-style public square.
But while he believes the Metrolink has ‘changed the area for the better,’ he says the traffic management may need a total rethink.
A key plank in the scheme will be Central Retail Park, recently bought by the council for £13.2m.
Coun Blundell does not envisage a change of use for the existing retail area – home to Argos, Halfords, Poundstretcher and Matalan.
But the adjacent 4.7acre brownfield plot is already earmarked for a new residential scheme of up to 150 homes.
“I want a bigger push – this should be our ‘whizzbang’ scheme,” said Coun Blundell.
“I’m stamping my feet, saying we want apartments or some really smart town houses, something you would expect when you come from the station.
“That site, because of its prominence, we’re going to use it to rethink what we want the area to be, and we want it to kickstart the redevelopment of that part of the town centre.”
Coun Blundell wants to pursue an over-arching vision of how the area will look in the future – something he believes has been lacking in the past.
He said: “You can tell from looking at the area that it’s grown over time and we’re now going to take a holistic view and say what we are going to do with it.
“There are lots of assets but no coherence, that’s what the plan is going to do. Rather than doing it piecemeal and reacting, we want a bit more of a strategy and a vision of what the place looks like. And we’ve got to the point now where it’s starting to come together.”
Coun Blundell also wants to see a similar approach rolled out to the borough’s other stations, Castleton, Littleborough and Mills Hill.
“This will be the first of the stations, but we will be looking at all of them as access points to the city centre,” he said.
“There is demand for access to the city centre and the council has to make sure it doesn’t miss the opportunities.”
He added: “This is where Rochdale can grab a greater slice of the economic pie – by offering the right type of housing to people living in the expensive housing in the city centre.”
Coun Blundell says a more detailed masterplan for the area will emerge over the next 12 months, although a planning application may not be submitted until 2020.
But he says that doesn’t mean nothing will happen in the area until then.
“If there’s an opportunity we won’t wait, that would be ridiculous, it will be a working document,” he said.
Rochdale council has an ambition to create 2,000 new homes in and around the town centre over the next 20 years.
●●SEND your views to rochdaleobserver@ menmedia.co.uk.