Council proposal to spend £9Millon

Rochdale Borough Council has announced proposals to spend a total of almost £9m; the money will be spent on a range of projects including transport improvements, town centre regeneration, major events, improving local people’s skills, and providing extra front-line social care staff.

The proposals include £3.5m on transport - including the completion of a Rochdale inner ring-road, improved parking at railway stations, and better traffic management for Heywood town centre.

£3m of the cash goes towards kick-starting major changes to Rochdale town centre after the council adopted a new Masterplan for the town. This includes ambitious plans to open up the town hall square into one of Europe’s largest public spaces. Other investment in the town centre will pay for improvements to Drake Street and the area at the bottom of Yorkshire Street.

£400,000 will be spent on skills and training – to try and ensure that local people are best-placed for employment opportunities when the region’s economy picks up. Targeted community and learner-led projects will be aimed at young people and families, and adults needing help with literacy. There’ll also be re-training schemes for people working in vulnerable business sectors.

A programme of events throughout 2010 will get £250,000.

There will also be further support for attracting inward investment to the borough, including Kingsway Business Park.

The council is also proposing to allocate an additional £580,000 from the budget pressures fund to spend on front line children’s social care services. From April 2010 onwards this will be used to provide additional resources, including an additional 14 front line staff.

Most of the funding will come from the council’s priority investment fund and capital programme, already allocated through the annual budget last month. It is in addition to other spending previously announced by the council in the budget-setting process.

The proposals will be presented to the council’s cabinet for decision on Monday 22 March 2010.

What the money will be spent on:

Transport

• Completion of an inner ring-road for Rochdale town centre, including enhancements to the Townhead junction 
• Better railway station parking at Rochdale, Littleborough and Castleton 
• Improvements to traffic management in Heywood town centre 
• Environmental improvement to Littleborough Arches 
• Completing the Roch Valley Trail 
• £1.5m on strategic improvements of the highways including major resurfacing programmes 

Rochdale town centre

• Town Hall square phase one – following on from the work in the Masterplan last year. 
• Building and signage improvements on Drake Street to create an enhanced environment to encourage investment. 
• Integration of the colleges to Rochdale town centre – improved subway connections and creation of a public square on St Mary’s Gate. 
• Pedestrianisation and improvements at the bottom of Yorkshire Street and the Butts area to complement investment in other areas of the town centre. 
• Works to establish the future potential uses for the Town Hall. 

Skills

• Adult literacy 
• Skills outreach work to engage local people in learning and development opportunities. 
• Support for young people to encourage their progression into training or employment. 
• Family learning scheme to encourage learning and ultimately progression to employment. 
• Fund entitlement to free retraining for employees in vulnerable businesses/sectors.

Image, branding and events

• Strengthen Kingsway’s strategic marketing proposition to inward investors. 
• Support implementation of the new borough brand and ‘quality of life’ proposition the borough offers through additional funding for tourism, events and regional/national marketing. 
• A programme of events throughout 2010 – including the Feel Good Festival in the summer and Christmas events in all four townships.