Council leader Richard Farnell gives the highlights of his report to the last meeting of the council

Councillor Richard Farnell, leader of Rochdale Borough Council

Severe cuts to our government grants have meant we have faced year-on-year budget cuts. So far that figure stands at nearly £160 million.

Despite the fact we have all had to find the budget savings required for next year (£16 million of cuts are needed to balance the books) all our reports were full of optimism and an acknowledgement of how much hard work has gone in to delivering the services we know are important to the public.

An example was the report I delivered on my cabinet regeneration brief.

The £250 million regeneration of Rochdale town centre took centre stage as it continues to be a major priority for the council. The signing up of M&S, Next and Reel Cinema are just the first of many national high street brands who are ready to do business in our borough.

One international company, car care products giant Tetrosyl, has also shown its commitment to Rochdale by opening their £1 million new headquarters in the town centre, taking on an extra 33 local employees in the first week.

It has always been important to show companies that we’re open for business and willing to explore new ways of giving them a head start if they move here.

Our business rates support scheme, which has been extended to Heywood and Middleton town centres, has been a massive success. It proved so successful in its first year that it was extended to provide a further 30% discount in the third year in addition to the 80% in year one and 50% in year two.

My report also outlined the innovative schemes we’ve adopted to keep our steady growth on the up. The Independent Retail Business Support Scheme which provides up to £5,000 of support to new town centre businesses; our ideas for supporting apprentices; and our plan to lobby the government to match our pound-for-pound investment fund so doubling the amount we are able to offer local firms, are just a few examples.

I also underlined the importance of maintaining and supporting our environment as another indicator of the borough’s growing prosperity.

The development of an exciting, new outdoor market on The Butts in Rochdale; a pending £15 million lottery funding bid for Rochdale Town Hall and the completion of a new platform at the train station with further improvements planned are the first of many physical changes happening in Rochdale.

There have been fantastic stone paving improvements to Baillie Street and lower Yorkshire Street in the town centre as well as improvements to Middleton town centre. Designs for the new paving along Baillie Street have been finalised and work has started in Market Place, Long Street, Rochdale Road and Mellalieu Street.

Another major driver for our continued economic success has been our ability to attract big business to Rochdale’s rapidly growing business parks.

JD Sports’ expansion at Kingsway Business Park will create around 200 new full time jobs; Heywood Distribution Park is close to 90% occupancy, demonstrating the popularity of the location and Stakehill Industrial Estate is also fast filling up.

So you can see there’s plenty going on all over the borough to signal our borough as a destination of choice for people to live, work and socialise.

Councillor Richard Farnell