Freedom of the Borough for RDA founder

Barrie Bernstein

Rochdale Council is to grant its highest honour, the Freedom of the Borough, to Mr Barrie Bernstein on Sunday 26 November in recognition of his outstanding service to the Borough.

Born in 1938, Barrie Bernstein was the only child only child of Dorothy and Cyril Bernstein. After being educated at Clifton College, Bristol, he joined the family business in 1955, was appointed to the board in 1961 and became Chairman in 1985.   He retired from the company in 1999. During his career Bernstein’s became a major kitchen manufacturer with plants in Middleton and Westhoughton, employing over 1,500 people.

In 1990 Mr Bernstein was invited to join the Rochdale TEC (Training and Enterprise Council).   He formed the R.D.A.( Rochdale Development Agency)  through the TEC in 1994. In the same year he joined the board of Britannia Building Society as a non Executive Director becoming Chairman in 1999, retiring in 2004.

The Bernstein family business moved to Middleton after the war in 1946, and the family still have substantial investments in the borough of Rochdale.

Mr Bernstein's commitment to Rochdale began in earnest following his time at the TEC and the formation of the Rochdale Development Agency.   The agency was originally formed to help inward investment and regeneration within the area as well as helping existing firms to remain and expand in Rochdale. Under Bernstein’s stewardship the RDA also became involved in the regeneration of some of the Borough’s most disadvantaged areas, leading many physical regeneration programmes and attracting substantial Government funding to the Borough. The regeneration of a large area of dereliction along the Rochdale Canal to create new employment, housing and public space was an early achievement. Over the last few years the R.D.A has effectively become an Urban Regeneration Agency, being very involved in the Government’s Housing Market Renewal programme which is helping to transform some of the Borough’s most deprived communities.

Whilst the agency has expanded substantially since its formation, most of the core team are still there some 13 years later.  Over that period several major development schemes have been brought to fruition, including the massive Kingsway Business Park project.   At the time construction started on Kingsway it was the single largest employment development in the U.K. covering some 420 acres and representing a total investment of almost £350M. The RDA also played a large role in producing the Rochdale Renaissance Masterplan and is involved in bringing forward many of the schemes identified in that plan, such as the redevelopment of Rochdale Town Centre.

Rochdale has now become firmly established as a centre for economic growth in the North West, bringing huge benefits to the community, industry and employment generally.

Barrie Bernstein is particularly proud of the agency’s work, and its tremendous success.