Council in bid to create ‘radical and romantic Rochdale’

Rochdale Council is to bid for £2million from the Heritage Lottery Fund to finance a regeneration scheme for the Rochdale Town Centre Conservation Area, focusing on Drake Street.

The draft bid is due before councillors at next Wednesday’s (9 November) Rochdale Township meeting – where they will decide whether or not to proceed.

If they do proceed and the bid is successful the Council will contribute around £1million to the scheme.

The theme for the Townscape Heritage Initiative (THI) Bid is ‘Radical and Romantic Rochdale.’

The plan is to re-brand Drake Street as a historic shopping street for niche shopping, re-open the River Roch and expose the medieval bridge as a focal point and unifying feature between Drake Street, the Butts and Yorkshire Street, link Drake Street to Yorkshire Street and find sustainable uses for vacant buildings.

The council also hopes to ‘create a heritage legacy’ for Rochdale and interpret Rochdale’s history and heritage assets.

The report due before Councillors, reads: “If successful the THI would bring £2million of investment for heritage-led regeneration in the Town Centre to complement the new development planned and underway as part of Town Centre East.”

If Councillors decide to proceed, which is likely, the bid will be submitted at the end of the month (November). This is the first stage of the bidding process. The Council will find out if it is successful in spring 2012, at that stage a THI manager would be appointed to develop a detailed second stage submission.