Plans lodged for Middleton sports hub
Rochdale AFC is partnering with the local authority on a revamp of the 27-acre Bowlee Playing Fields, with hub buildings and pitches for club and community alike.
Consultation was carried out in June on the project, which will see the fields’ troublesome drainage improved as a new course is plotted for a community asset in need of investment.
Effectively, the playig fields will be divided into two: a football hub on one side that will both be a training ground for Dale and community facilities managed by Rochdale AFC Community Trust. The other side will be managed by local wellbeing charity Your Trust and will include a community sports pavilion.
Having returned to the Football League this year, Dale want to build a 6,000 sq ft building at Bowlee, which will include changing facilities for the club, a gym, media area, offices, and recreation facilities. There will also be a changing and social space for the community and offices as well.
The hub includes a full-size 3G artificial grass pitch for the Rochdale AFC Community Trust, as well as a grass training area for RAFC. An existing community grass football pitch will also be retained and upgraded as part of the proposals.
On other other part of the site, the community sports pavilion will be 7,200 sq ft and operated by Your Trust, a charity focussed on improving leisure and health provision in Rochdale. This part of the project includes a 40-station health and fitness gym, changing rooms, and a community room with kitchen and social space.
New cricket nets will also be brought in and two full-size 3G artificial grass pitches created.
The proposals have been drawn up by Pozzoni, with Enabl leading the planning process. Abacus is the project manager, cost manager, and principal designer of the scheme. FMG is the consultant for sport and leisure. Re-form is leading on the landscape architecture.
The team also includes E3P, Redmore Environmental, Clancy, GTech Surveys, MAB Consultancy, Kowski Consulting, Jameson Acoustics, and i-Transport.
North-west of Middleton, the playing fields sit within the wider Bowlee Community Park off Heywood Old Road.
As set out in Enabl’s planning statement, the existing facilities are constrained, with FMG reporting that although the site currently includes seven grass football pitches, a non-turf cricket wicket and an existing pavilion, only four pitches are in regular use due to drainage issues. The pavilion is also described as insufficient for modern needs.
The proposals can be seen on Rochdale Council’s planning portal, using the reference number PL/2026/0738.
This was public space for everyone played on these pitches for years more selling of our green spaces they will be charging you next to walk across it
By Rick Towers
This is a clever move by Rochdale council to get rid of the maintenance of the fields.
Rochdale Football club have tried for a number of years to get there hands on the field’s.
This proposal does not secure un fettered public access to fields as they presently enjoy
This proposal is wrong on many counts
By Anonymous
I don’t know why they can’t work in partnership with the local school to update and use their massive fields and facilities.
Instead they want to tarmac, astroturf, destroy wildlife and keep the local residents fenced out of a valuable wellbeing resource.
By Anonymous
These fields are enjoyed by hundreds of people, old and young alike. This proposal will limit enjoyment of this green space to the few not the many.
By Mat
Training facilities not needed, will not make any difference to the quality of soccer played by Rochdale A F C, but could deprive dog walkers of provision
By Nuala Chapman