Changing Rochdale
Creating Your New Rochdale Town Centre
Rochdale town centre is being transformed.
We are creating a town centre with fantastic leisure, shopping,
cultural and learning opportunities for residents and visitors to
enjoy.
Our long-term vision for the town centre is set out in our draft
masterplan but there’s already a lot of
great things happening:
- The new £26m Sixth Form College opened in September 2010. It’s
the first new sixth form college to open in Britain since 2003.
This is bringing around 1,000 students into the town centre,
creating a great buzz!
- work on the new £11.5 million transport interchange on Smith
Street that will link in with Metrolink is due to get underway
later this year. The building will replace the outdated bus station
and will bring people into the town centre in style.
- Metrolink is coming to the town centre in 2014 and to Rochdale
train station in 2012.
- a large riverside site, also on Smith Street, is being cleared
for the new council offices that will also be home to a new ‘one
stop’ customer service centre and fantastic public library. Due to
open in 2012, this will change the skyline of the town centre.
- when the new transport interchange is open and council staff
have moved into the new building, the Municipal Offices, Telegraph
House and the bus station will be demolished to make way for the
proposed new multi-million pound, 150,000 sq ft retail development.
Initial ideas include space for a department store and hotel along
with lots more quality shops, leisure facilities and better car
parking.
- plans for a new state-of-the-art swimming pool and sports
complex adjacent to the current Central Leisure site on Entwistle
Road are starting to take shape. The fantastic new leisure facility
is scheduled to open in 2012.
- Aldi is opening a new supermarket on Entwistle Road in
November. The store will provide 960 sq m of retail space.
Each of these projects is ambitious and bold. Together they will
contribute to our achieving our vision for Rochdale town centre to
be:
“Attractive, vibrant and revitalised [with] an excellent range
and choice of shopping, leisure, living, working and cultural
facilities that meets the needs of, and provides a focal point for,
the Borough. Rochdale will be established as a major sub regional
shopping centre and destination for the North West”.
And that’s not all. Public realm improvements have been made,
particularly to Drake Street, and a loyalty card has been developed
to encourage people to spend locally. The ‘Love Rochdale, Love
Loyalty’ card gives shoppers a whole host of special offers to
enjoy. To find out more and to sign up, go to the Love Rochdale
home page.