Willmott Dixon forges ahead with Rochdale plans
The construction firm has submitted plans for 224 homes on the six-acre Central Retail Park site in the town centre on behalf of the local council.
Rochdale Council announced earlier this year that it would bring the long-awaited redevelopment of the plot forward after Manchester-based developer Capital&Centric stepped away from the scheme.
Capital&Centric had drawn up plans with architect ShedKM for a 200-home development on the former Central Retail Park site in Rochdale and consulted on the proposals last year.
However, Capital&Centric said Rochdale’s plans “didn’t hold true to our vision”.
Under plans lodged this week, the site would be redeveloped to provide 81 townhouses and 142 apartments.
The houses would be a mix of two-, three- and four-bedroom homes and the apartments would be a mix of one- and two-bedroom properties within a six-storey block along Drake Street.
Leach Rhodes Walker is the architect for the project and Plan Red is the planning consultant.
The local authority bought the site from Town Centre Securities for £13m in 2018 and its redevelopment forms part of the council’s Rail Corridor Strategy.
The infrastructure cannot sustain this amount of vehicles in this town,it is already bursting at the seams.
By Richard
@Richard. These are town centre apartments and townhouses with all the facilities plus transport link on your doorstep. I wouldn’t bother with a car in this location.
By SW
SW Those tranport links go nowhere, a car is very much needed
By Cal
@Cal. Trams to Manchester City centre.
By SW
The logic behind this development is really sound. Rochdale has an opportunity to leverage the rail corridor into Victoria to access Manchester City centre employment growth and be build a broader based housing market.
By Rich X
That development could literally be anywhere. How do people even get planning fir this stuff?
By Simon
The trams go to Manchester and Oldham the trains go to Halifax and Leeds one way and Manchester the other. Rochdale is pretty good for transport links.
By Elephant
Although it sounds like gentrification it’s hugely important for places like Rochdale to build the number of higher value knowledge workers who call the town home. It’s people to spend money in the town, and a pool of labour to attract employers. One of reasons why it struggles against indices of deprivation is that it doesn’t have a big middle class to start with. This also fits well with things like Atom Valley.
By Rich X
Proved my point. cars will be needed to get anywhere
By Cal
Your point hasn’t been proved Cal. Please elaborate your case in detail.
By SW
Cal is a troll – best ignored. Don’t feed the troll.
By Anonymous
I think Cal what the you’ve actually done is to disprove your point. Read the comments .
By Dan
If anyone has ever travelled on the tram from Rochdale to Manchester you will know it’s usually frequented by “Yobs” swearing and being antisocial. I Live in Rochdale and the train out of it into Manchester is a much better proposition, but do you feel safe walking out of the train station into Rochdale…no… regularly see drug deals behind Wetherspoons….let’s be honest, the tram and train take people out of Rochdale to shop, not the other way about.
Any investment is better than none, hopefully it will bring the area up. All we now must do is tackle the carbuncle that is the seven sisters…defunct 60 high rise than need to be flatten or brought up to modern standards..
By Anoy
Hey folks. I believe both sides regarding transport have now been covered, thoroughly, in the comments and no one is interested in changing their mind. I’ll be keeping an eye on the discussion going forward, but recommend we move it along to other elements of the project. Best – Julia
By Julia Hatmaker
If only a kind benefactor had bought this site instead for the £13m and turned it into a new park to last generations…
By Green giza