Two national awards for Rochdale’s high quality housing designs

Trafalgar Street build receives national award

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New homes being built in Rochdale as part of the Housing Market Renewal programme received two National Housing Design Awards at a ceremony held in London.

The awards were in recognition of the quality of the plans for new housing at the Trafalgar Street site in Wardleworth and the former Dale and Arkwright Mill sites in Hamer. Both schemes beat off competition from many leading architects and developers in the category of projects that had detailed planning consent but were not yet completed.

Eileen Scott, Director of English Partnerships presented the awards to Councillor Zulfiqar Ali and representatives from BASE (Rochdale Council’s development partner), the Oldham Rochdale Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder, Rochdale Development Agency and Proctor and Matthews and OMI Architects. 

BASE, a partnership between Barratt Homes and Artisan Property Group, started building the first 25 homes at the Trafalgar Street site earlier this month.  The homes are a mix of sizes with some for sale, rent and shared ownership. They are being built using materials from ‘green’ sources, aiming to cut residents’ fuel bills and achieve the Eco-homes ‘very good’ standard.

OMI Architects developed the designs with valuable input from local people who gave their views at consultation events. The scheme will be known as Nelson Place and later phases will take the number of homes on the development to 52.

BASE are also building 85 new homes where Dale and Arkwright Mills once stood in Hamer. The eco-friendly homes, designed by architects Proctor amp; Matthews, will be built overlooking the River Roch. The high quality landscaped development will include play spaces and pedestrian friendly streets, with views toward the Pennine hills. Some of the homes will be available for rent and shared ownership through West Pennine Housing Association (part of the Regenda Group).

BASE will work with Rochdale Development Agency and Rochdale Council to build both schemes using funding from Housing Market Renewal (HMR), English Partnerships and the Housing Corporation.

Rochdale Development Agency (RDA) initially identified the site as being suitable for a housing development and promoted a national design competition which saw the selection of architects Proctor and Matthews to masterplan the area.  Since then RDA has played a leading role with the architect and in appointing BASE, with the aim of making sure that these exciting designs could be turned into reality.  Both developments will help transform East Central Rochdale into a more sustainable community. 

Richard McCarthy, Director General for Programmes, Policy and Innovation at the Government’s Department for Communities and Local Governement, attended the awards ceremony and commended Rochdale for raising the standard of design in urban areas, particularly for family homes.  

Councillor Zulfiqar Ali, Cabinet Member for Community Cohesion and Housing, said: “I am really proud to collect these awards with our partners. It’s great to receive national recognition but the real winners are local people who are benefiting from a huge improvement in the quality of housing on offer.”  

Alastair Graham, HMR Pathfinder Director, added: “I am delighted that the excellence in design that we are striving for at the Oldham Rochdale Pathfinder has again been recognised. Both these developments will add to the choice of high quality accommodation in Rochdale.”

The Oldham Rochdale Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder has invested more than £20 million already in areas of Rochdale borough including Wardleworth, Hamer, Mayfield, Cloverhall, Bellshill, Town Head and Langley in Middleton.

Earlier this month, the Oldham Rochdale Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder was named as one of the top 25 organisations engaged in regeneration in the country by national development journal Regenerate.