Best Value Performance Plan - characteristics of the borough
Rochdale Metropolitan Borough is located in the southern Pennine
Moors, in the north-east region of the Greater Manchester
conurbation. The Borough covers 62 square miles of which about
two-thirds is rural. It is characterised by urban developments of
dense housing and industrial areas located along major routeways,
surrounded by hilly areas of rural land.
The Borough is divided into four Townships based around the
towns of Rochdale, Heywood and Middleton, together with the eastern
urban area that form the Pennines Township. Each Township has its
own distinctive background and character with which residents
identify.
The pleasant semi-rural location of the Borough with its good
road access to the rest of the north-west region makes it a
desirable place to live and work.
People
The population of the Borough at the 2001 Census was 205,357,
which is a slight increase since the 1991 Census. The population is
divided between the four Townships as follows: Heywood 29,240;
Middleton 45,688; Pennines 32,996; and Rochdale 97,433.
The ethnic profile of the Borough is a diverse mix with 14% of
people being from the black and minority ethnic (BME) group. The
majority of these people are Pakistani with most living in the
Rochdale Township where the BME community represents approximately
20% of the population. The Council has a positive policy regarding
its BME population and aims to celebrate the diversity of the
communities it serves. Although the Borough has not been beset by
the community unrest that has affected other local authorities, the
Council has still been proactive in improving the harmony of
communities. The Council was awarded Beacon Council and Home Office
Pathfinder Status for Community Cohesion in 2003/04.
The population of the Borough is ageing slightly less rapidly
than the rest of the country, thereby providing an excellent local
labour resource for future economic growth.
Housing
The Borough’s housing tends to be of low value with 58% of
properties belonging to Council Tax Band A, with bands B and C
accounting for a further 27%. The layout of the Borough generally
comprises of high-density housing in urban areas surrounded by
expanses of rural land.
There is a recognised need in the Borough to create sustainable
neighbourhoods that combine good housing, and access to schools and
amenities such as shops and leisure facilities, whilst also having
access to employment opportunities via good availability of public
transport services.
The BVPP outlines some of the key initiatives such as the
Renaissance Masterplan and associated Housing Market Renewal (HMR)
initiative and the New Deal for Communities (NDC), which will
benefit local communities by attracting Government funding to
improve the Borough’s housing stock.
There is also a need for communities to be empowered to
influence decisions that affect their communities and have a say in
the services that the Council provides for them.
Education
In 2006 overall improvements were made in the academic
performance of children at all key stages. Of particular note, the
Council achieved its highest level of achievement regarding pupils
gaining 5 or more GCSE’s at grade A-C, with 50.1% of pupils
achieving this attainment level. Steps to improve GCSE passes will
provide the foundations for young people to progress academically
and achieve higher qualifications by further education at college
and university.
However, the educational attainment of adults in the Borough
continues to fall below the national average. Approximately 21% of
adults in Rochdale Borough have qualifications at NVQ Levels 3
(equivalent to 2 A levels), 4 and 5 (graduate level) compared to
28% in England & Wales.
The Council realises that education is vitality important for
the Borough’s children and adults, not only in providing them with
everyday skills that they need to get by in modern life, but also
in helping them to realise their full potential and gain fulfilling
and well-paid jobs.
Health
The Council works alongside its partners in the Health
Partnership to improve the health of the Borough’s population. The
Council’s main partners include the NHS Heywood, Middleton and
Rochdale and social care organisations.
Life expectancy for men and women in the Borough is less than
the national average and in some of wards is ten years less than in
other parts of the Borough.
Poor life expectancy is affected by the incidence of coronary
heart disease, respiratory disease, stroke, cancers, injury,
poisoning and infant mortality.
Office of National Statistics figures also show that the general
health of the Borough’s inhabitants also needs to be improved. When
surveyed 66.1% of the Borough’s population considered they were in
good general health compared to the national average of 68.6%.
Also, 20.61% of the population had a ‘limiting long-term’ illness
compared to 18.23% in England & Wales.
The health of children and young people also needs to be
addressed. The infant mortality rate is above the national average
and levels of teenage conceptions are high. Children also have more
tooth decay, missing or filled teeth than the national average, and
obesity levels are high for children aged 4 years of age.
The Council is actively working with its partners to raise
public awareness of the key health issues for the Borough. Under
the Neighbourhood Renewal Strategy and action plan areas the
Council continues to lead on initiatives to combat drug and alcohol
abuse, reduce teenage pregnancies, and increase the public’s
awareness of opportunities for health improvements.
Employment
Rochdale has a moderately weak economy that is overly dependent
on distributive, hotel & catering, public administration &
health and manufacturing industries. The number of start up
businesses is relatively low, but medium sized businesses and new
businesses are being attracted in increasing numbers.
62% of the people in the Borough are of working age. Of these
approximately 73% are in employment, with 5% unemployed. The
remainder of those of working age are economically inactive, e.g.
retired or looking after a home.
Unemployment rates in the Borough are slightly higher than the
national average, with some wards having significantly higher
unemployment, e.g., in Milkstone / Deeplish and Central Rochdale /
Falinge 6 to 7% of the working age population are unemployed.
The major employment sectors in the Borough are distribution,
the hotel & catering industry (25% of jobs) and public
administration, education and public health (25% of jobs). Notably,
these employment sectors together with manufacturing account for a
greater percentage of jobs on a sector by sector basis compared
with the rest of England & Wales. Similarly, jobs in banking,
finance and insurance are low at approximately 12% of jobs compared
to the national average of 18%.
A major threat to employment concerns the manufacturing sector
which is forecast to lose around 5,000 jobs in Rochdale Borough by
2015.
Of further significance, jobs in the Borough pay about £35 less
per week compared to the average for England & Wales.
As outlined previously, to attract better and more highly paid
jobs to the Borough and ensure local people are suitably qualified
for employment there is a need to increase the higher-level
educational attainment of adults. In the most deprived
neighbourhoods up to a half of adults have no qualifications.
Nationally over two thirds of new jobs in the future will require
people with NVQ Level 3 or above.
The Rochdale Economic Development Strategy proposes a series of
interventions to raise the economic performance of the area. These
include the development of the Kingsway Business Park and other
sites which will benefit from the Borough’s excellent motorway
links. It is envisaged that Kingsway will create 7,000 jobs.
In April 2006 the Council entered into a strategic partnership
with Mouchel Parkman. This arrangement, known as the Impact
Partnership represents a major step forward for the Council in both
improving services and making them more efficient and attracting
new jobs to the Borough.
The Borough’s Renaissance Masterplan outlined later in the BVPP
outlines some of the key initiatives we are putting in place to
improve the economy of the Borough.
Crime
We recognise that nationally and locally crime is a growing
concern to the public. At Rochdale Borough we have taken these
concerns seriously and in an attempt to provide a safer Borough for
our residents we have established the Safer Communities
Partnership.
This partnership comprises of the Council, Police, Probation
Service, and other agencies involved in crime and disorder
reduction and has set out its objectives in the Crime and Disorder
Reduction Strategy 2005-08
Crime, and the fear of crime and disorder, remains a major
concern for the community. Even though the total number of crimes
has fallen by 18% over the last three years (based on the British
Crime Survey), and burglary and robbery have fallen by more than a
half and a third, respectively, the crime rate is still high
compared to the national average.
Many people also still feel unsafe in their own homes or
neighbourhood. Anti-social behaviour particularly by the young
continues to be a problem.
Transport links
The M62 motorway passes through the Borough and provides
excellent access both to Yorkshire and (via the M60) to the rest of
Greater Manchester and Merseyside. Other nearby
motorways provide fast links to Lancashire, North Wales and the
Midlands.
The Borough has rail links across the Pennines to Yorkshire and
also to Manchester where the west coast mainline service can be
accessed. The regional airport, Manchester International, is
Britain’s second major airport.
Phase 3 of the Metrolink expansion to link Rochdale, Oldham and
Ashton to the tramway network was approved and funding agreed by
the Government in July 2006. Work has already commenced for the
project with building clearance work on the site of the new
Rochdale bus-tramway interchange already being carried out.
The Borough’s transport links are a great attribute for the
Borough. Later in the plan you will see how we are putting
strategies in place to use our location in the north-west and
excellent transport links to improve the economy of the
Borough.
Environment
Rochdale Borough is one of the greenest boroughs in Greater
Manchester and we have some of the most visited beauty spots in the
area, such as Hollingworth Lake and the Watergrove and Piethorne
Reservoirs. However, only 22% of households have close access to
good quality green spaces. Furthermore, in a recent survey only 53%
of residents were satisfied with the local environment.
Although the Audit Commission praised the Council in February
2006 for improvements in household waste recycling rates, they also
noted that we still need to make improvements in this area.
The Borough’s ecological footprint is 2.8, which means that if
everyone in the world lived as we do in the Borough, we would need
2.8 planet Earth’s worth of resources to continue a sustainable
existence.
Clearly, the sustainability challenge for us all is to
experience rewarding lives within the limits of one planet. The
Council and its partners have a major part to play in encouraging
and enabling the sustainable development of the Borough.
Deprivation in the Borough
The Government’s Deprivation Indices rank Rochdale Borough as
the 25th most deprived Borough in the country. This rating is based
on factors that include employment, income, housing and health.
The previous sections of the BVPP relating to housing,
education, health, and employment summarise some of the main
reasons for the Borough’s high incidence rate of deprivation.
The Borough’s textile-based industrial past has not been
replaced by a major source of employment. This has left the Borough
with a relatively unskilled, poorly-educated, low-earning
workforce, living in some areas in low-value housing in densely
populated urban areas. Associated with these factors are relatively
high-unemployment and poor health.
The Council is very aware of the these problems and is working
with its partners to fully capitalise on the potential and scope
for improvement within the Borough based on positive aspects such
as its location, excellent communication links, and strong
communities. Successful funding of Housing Market Renewal and New
Deal for Communities initiatives, recent successes in service
improvements (e.g. GCSE results), and ongoing implementation of the
Rochdale Renaissance Masterplan, provide a good foundation for
future sustainable improvements in residents’ quality of life.
Later in the BVPP you will see how the characteristics of the
Borough have influenced the ambitions and priorities for the
Borough. These are set out in the Community Plan - Pride of Place,
and the Council’s Corporate Plan - Aiming High.