Rochdale's new community woodland completed

Rochdale’s new community woodland is now fully open to the public, thanks to the Forestry Commission's latest green makeover project in the town.

After four years of intensive regeneration, reconditioning and landscaping work, the Belfield community woodland is now complete.

The Forestry Commission has transformed several areas of former brownfield land to bring it back to life and establish the new community woodland to the east of Rochdale town centre, between the River Roch and Rochdale Canal.

The work has been made possible thanks to a £1.75million Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) investment through the Newlands programme.

With cycle paths, riverside walks and a fishing lodge, the Belfield community woodland, off Belfield Lane, is an ideal place for all the family to enjoy free outdoor exercise together in a greener, cleaner community area.

The project is helping to create a clean and green river corridor from Rochdale town centre to the Belfield and Clover Hall Estates in the heart of East Rochdale's Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder area.

Belfield is Rochdale's central hub for cycling. National cycle route 92 crosses the site, providing links to route 66 on the Rochdale Canal and beyond.

Belfield is the latest community woodland from the ‘Newlands’ partnership between the Forestry Commission and NWDA to regenerate the area’s disused landfill sites.

Tim Oliver from the Forestry Commission is the Newlands Programme Manager. He says: “After years of hard work and investment, we're delighted that the Belfield community woodland is now complete. The Belfield project is really important to the ongoing regeneration of Rochdale, providing a wide range of social, environmental and economic benefits.

"The regeneration of the site will help turn the area into a greener, cleaner and more attractive space for local people to play, live and work. It will also help develop links to the National Cycle Network. "It will also continue to develop links to the national cycle network and the ongoing regeneration of East Central Rochdale."

The Forestry Commission will also work closely with the local community to provide opportunities for them to be involved in managing the woodland and helping to develop local skills and ownership of the site.

The NWDA is also providing resources to keep the Belfield Community Woodland maintained for the next 20 years. The Forestry Commission will manage the woodlands it creates at Belfield for a further 79 years, securing nearly 100 years of management for the areas' community green space.

Richard Tracey, Head of Environmental Quality, Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA), says: "This new strategic green infrastructure resource will add health and well being benefits to the economic drive to enhance the adjacent Housing Market Renewal areas.”

To support this work, additional funding from Biffaward and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) has been secured for the Belfield Community Woodland project.

A number of local partners, including Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council, Groundwork Oldham and Rochdale, Pennine Edge Forest, Housing Market Renewal, Sustrans and BTCV are also involved in the project.

Belfield is one of seven Newlands projects currently being developed in the Northwest of England.