Everything decided at the latest meeting of council’s cabinet

Number One Riverside

The council’s cabinet met at Number One Riverside on 23 January and approved a crime crackdown plan and the installation of solar panels on eight school buildings across the borough.

The council's Serious Violence Strategy, which aims to tackle the root cause of crime in the borough, was approved by councillors.

According to a report put before the councillors, Rochdale had the second highest rate of offences in Greater Manchester behind Manchester with 136 crimes per 1,000 people. 

This had increased from 128 crimes per 1,000 compared to the previous 12-month period.

Between 2022 and 2023, Rochdale saw 2,571 violent offences with injury, five murders and 10 deaths or serious injury due to dangerous driving, according to the strategy report. In a bid to tackle these issues, the council is looking to work with partners such as Greater Manchester Police to implement new ways of stopping problems at the root cause.

Working in collaboration with neighbourhoods and townships to promote community safety and going into areas impacted by serious violence to find out what is causing these problems will form a big part of this new strategy. The cabinet were also told how a child-centred approach alongside work with children’s and youth services will look into the challenges around youth criminality.

Police hotspotting in areas where crime is most concentrated is also a key factor in the strategy. However, despite Councillor Shah Wazir’s concerns about police funding and staffing in certain communities, this strategy does not allow the council to control officers on the ground.

This means it is down to collaboration with GMP on how to manage resources.

Also on the agenda at the cabinet meeting was the plan to install hundreds of solar panels on school buildings in the borough. Approval for this scheme means that £885,118 will be spent installing the eco-friendly systems onto school roofs – helping reach the council’s climate targets and lowering the schools’ energy bills in the long run.

Eight schools and one children’s centre succesfully applied to the ‘Powering our Schools’ scheme – a project launched by Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA)  at the Green Summit in October 2023. The nine schools were put forward for the scheme following considerations that took into account roof capacity, maintenance requirements and proximity to the national grid lines, the meeting heard.

The nine sites that will get the solar panels funded through the council’s Climate Change Capital Fund are:

• Ashfield Valley Primary School & Nursery Class
• Bowlee Park Community Primary School & Nursery Class
• Broadfield Community Primary School
• Derby Street Children’s Centre
• Hopwood Community Primary School
• Newhey Community Primary School & Nursery Class
• St Edwards CE Primary School
• St Peters CE Primary School & Nursery Class

George Lythgoe, Local Democracy Reporter