Central & Falinge - deprivation and illness to blame?

Council Leader Alan Taylor and Council Chief Executive Roger Ellis have responded to the figures that show that Central and Falinge has become so dependent on state handouts that more than three quarters of all adults are unemployed and on benefits. Councillor Taylor blames deprivation and a transient population and says the regeneration starting in the town centre will help. Mr Ellis acknowledges the problem, highlighting in particular high rates of ill health in the Central and Falinge area, but promises the council is working hard to solve the problems.

Councillor Alan Taylor, leader of Rochdale Borough Council, said: "Deprivation affects many areas of the borough and in some places there are hotspots of acute deprivation - we're working hard with our partners to tackle the causes as well as the effects. Receiving funding from central government specifically to address deprivation is a massive help and has meant that we've been able to put a number of schemes and projects in place in the most deprived areas.

"In central Rochdale and Falinge there is a significant proportion of social housing and many flats above shops as well as sheltered accommodation. There are several 1960s tower blocks of flats, which are very much valued by the people who live there, many of whom are elderly or have disabilities. There's a significant concentration of deprived people within a relatively small geographical area close to the town centre here - elsewhere those people might be housed across a wider area. There also tends to be a transient population - as people move out of deprivation we see them move to other areas of the borough.

"There is a lot of change going on in Rochdale which is creating new employment opportunities. What we are trying to do is maximise these opportunities for local people by making sure that our residents have the qualifications and skills needed to be able to fill new job vacancies as they arise. The new Kingsway business park alongside the M62 will bring new employers to the borough - and we're going to make sure that there is a local workforce trained to find employment on the massive 420 acre site. We've also this month taken a major step forward in the regeneration of Rochdale by selecting a developer to lead the biggest facelift the town centre has ever had - this will include new modern accommodation as well as many job opportunities in the new shops, bars and restaurants on the doorstep of Central and Falinge."

Roger Ellis, Chief Executive of Rochdale Council said: "We're working hard to improve the quality of life for people here in Rochdale - especially in the most deprived areas - but it is a long-term problem so one of the key things that we are doing is investing in children and young people now. We have been the most improved education authority in the country at Key Stage 2 consistently over the last three years, and have several new schools in deprived areas that have been formed by the amalgamation of existing ones as there are now fewer children starting school. Those schools - like Broadfield - are already getting good reports from Ofsted.

"Deprivation can have a major impact on health and we find that in areas like Central and Falinge there are indeed very high levels of ill health. In partnership with the Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Primary Care Trust we're starting an assessment of needs to make sure that the health and social care services that we provide now and in the future will deliver real benefits for the people who need them most.

"Across the borough there are significant numbers of people with skills gaps and in areas of acute deprivation we have hotspots where people have no qualifications whatsoever. That's why we're linking up with local employers to make sure that we give people the right training to be able to get into work. When an employer is making staff redundant we provide support to make sure that those staff find employment elsewhere - and when employers are looking to recruit people with specific skills, we help to identify suitable people then fund training to equip them with those skills. As one of the area's biggest employers, the council have also recently committed to a Skills Pledge to ensure that we raise the skills levels of our own workforce.

"We ran a project recently called Opportunity Knocks where various agencies all came together to get out into deprived areas and knock on doors. They spoke to unemployed people and got a far better understanding of what they see as the biggest hurdles preventing them from getting a job. Language problems have been highlighted as something that often presents peoples with a barrier so we're helping people learn English through the ESOL programme. Plus we have a scheme called In2Work which is specifically for people on incapacity or sickness related benefits - it's about getting them back into employment or helping them to set up their own business. Doing voluntary or paid work then often has a positive effect on their health.

"We have ambitious plans for major physical and social regeneration in Rochdale over the next five to ten years and we're determined that in the long-term some of the improvements we're making now will have a significant effect on people's lives."