LEADING figures have raced to Rochdale’s defence after a stunning attack by a London-based policy think tank.
The right wing Policy Exchange urged people to head south for a better life, singling out Rochdale as one area prosperity just couldn’t reach.
The report says money spent on the regeneration of the town and others like it had failed to close the gap in wealth with the London area.
It argues that people in such towns need to move south if they want to get a well-paid job.
The report says: "Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle, for example, all have decided strengths, but they are not successful enough to deliver prosperity to neighbouring towns, such as Rochdale, Bradford and Sunderland, in the way that London is able to support relatively poor communities in North Kent and South Essex."
It adds that we need to accept we can’t ‘regenerate every town that has fallen behind’.
The report comes just weeks after controversial comments by Howard Raynor, head of a firm that helps companies improve their service. He equated Rochdale with slovenly standards saying: "Service in Manchester is warm and friendly, but not very professional. It’s as if the prices are set in London but the service is set in Rochdale."
The think tank’s claims met with indignation. Council leader Alan Taylor said he definitely wouldn’t be packing his bags.
"If anybody has been on the London underground and seen people there with their grey scowling faces, they would never want to live in the south.
"We live in one of the best parts of Britain."
MP Paul Rowen, pointing to the investment coming into Rochdale, including the planned £250M town centre regeneration, dismissed it as ‘London-centric claptrap’.
"What I and others have got to do is make sure there are high quality jobs for the graduates that have gone to university so they have something to come back to.
"With places like Zen Internet, it shows it’s possible for quality jobs to be created in our town."
He said Rochdale was a ‘great place to live’.
Carol Hopkins, manager for Rochdale at Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, said: "Parts of the report are actually quite insulting both to people and businesses.
"The North West’s economy is bigger than 15 EU countries and Greater Manchester is responsible for approximately half of this. The local economy has never been stronger, even as we face uncertain times.
"A lot of this is down to that regeneration which the report states isn’t working."
Phil Ewbank, chairman of Rochdale Development Agency, said he was confident the report could be dismissed. He said Rochdale was seeing ‘unprecedented investment’ with millions coming from the private sector.
Councillor Ashley Dearnley, the leader of Rochdale Conservatives, distanced himself from the report linked to his party. "Nothing in the South has transformed as fast and successfully as Manchester."
Tweet
Showing comments 1 to 8 and replies | View All
mandy40 (16/08/2008 at 09:47)
Yeah lets all go to London and get stabbed.
Lancashire Lass2 (16/08/2008 at 10:29)
Let's keep politics out of it - forget all the grudges about who said what about XYZ in 1900 and dot, cut the lengthy hot air filled meetings, the PR leaflets which fool nobody and actually get moving on making things better for the people of Rochdale.
Take the town centre for instance - I USED to shop there but shop elsewhere now. Why?
1. Car parking fines - how can you relax and shop when you are constantly checking your watch every few minutes?
2. Gangs of youths - who should be at school - prowling the shopping centre.
3. Open drug use and dealing? Not convinced? Check out the alleyway between Marks & Spencers and MacDonalds.
4. Drake Street looks like a scene from a war zone.
5. Hands up who feels safe in the town centre?
6. Hands up who feels that they are a stranger in a town where they once felt they belonged?
I wonder how many of the decision makers at the town hall and black box actually LIVE in the area?
How many actually CARE about what happens here?
How many have actually taken up the advice offered in the report and not moved south but moved OUT?
How many of us are actually thinking of following suit?
I know I am... how about you?
MPs gravy train, UK (16/08/2008 at 11:59)
mandy40 (18/08/2008 at 11:35)
A.Carter (19/08/2008 at 23:11)
Hard working Rochdalians are sick and tired of free loaders and the daft multi million pound projects that seem to have more with pouring concrete and filling the boots of property speculators than they have for making our town better.
I don't agree with the recommendations of this think tank but I agree with the criticisms. Take a look at some of the wasteful farces that have been planned for our town. Kingsway, Metrolink, Town Centre Redevelopment and the recently announced University of Rochdale.
What planet are these 'regeneration experts' on? Not the one inhabited by most hard working Rochdalians fearful of their jobs, putting food on their tables and fuel in their cars.
These regenreation experts are arrogant. They don't listen. Their so-called consultations are shams. They even have a hold over the politicians eger to cut the ribbons on new projects that will look good in the glossy brochures and powerpoint presentations but will be a nightmare to work in, travel on or shop in.
Take Kingsway Business Park- tumbleweed central. How much has been wasted on this farce? Hotel? Not happening. New jobs? non-existent. Empty roads that are an embarressment to this town. A £350 million joke.
Metrolink?
To be paid for by a congestion charge on hard working families. Who the heck in Rochdale is really going to use it? £200 million to knock old bridges down and use an existing rail link with an inferior light rail alternative. The bulk of all projected traffic can take a faster and cheaper direct rail route to Manchester anyway.
Town Centre Redevelopment?
More shops in a town that has too many closed already. £80 million for new council offices and a tram shed we don't need. Who in their right minds are looking to invest in commercial retail centres at the start of a huge recession. These £250 million town centre regeneration plans are an unaccountable farce. All the plans are souless, ugly and lack character.
On the same architectural theme, what genius came up with £100 million plans for a new college and a "University"?
Invest in people not concrete, fancy glass and stainless steel monstrosities. Look at some of the world's most respected educational establishments- Eton and Oxford. Both have dodgy plumbing and some decrepid buildings BUT the educational standards are world class. Rochdale deserves better than overpriced, bland PFI pyramid schemes that do more to line the pockets of builders and investment funds than will ever be done for the next generation of Rochdalians.
Who is really to blame for this wasteful, arrogant, unimaginative meddling.
Who are the "regeneration experts" spending our money on "renaissance aspirations" and other claptrap.
Step forward Rochdale Council's £150K pa Chief Executive plus a number of his executives each on over £100k pa. Half a dozen of their wages exceed all the expenses of Rochdale's 60, unpaid councillors.
Then look at the money squandered by the Rochdale Development Agency. Take a tour of Rochdale's bombsites- Kingsway, Drake Street, Birch Hill, Wardleworth, the area surrounding Unique Mill, Akzo and many empty business units.
What have we had for all this tax money ?
Glossy brochures and broken promises.
Much needed homes?
More houses knocked down under Pathfinder than actually built. Those that have been built, during the housing boom, cost a fortune in grants. Not monopoly money but our hard earned tax.
What about some of the real victims of this emmense, scandalous mismanagement? What about the old folk who were comfortable and secure in their sheltered housing in the Guiness Trust estate at Newbold. Gone. Now levelled. This was supposed to be one of the regeneration jewels for fancy apartments next to a planned Metrolink tram stop. Old folk booted out for developers who have now scarpered.
The same sorry saga threatens the old folk in their bugalows on Halifax Road. To be demolished to make a spine road for a new business park near Unique Mill. The RDA need to look deep into their consciences because of the turmoil caused to some of Rochdale's most vulnerable citizens.
Don't grow old in Rochdale, the property spivs can get their way and evict you if there is the chance of a quick buck to be earned. Then again, as the recession bites they just scarper out of Dodge and leave the flattened bombsites. The fancy signs surrounding them that announce that "Rochdale is booming" is a cruel, expensive irony.
So here we are in 2008. A billion pounds promised but the wheels are falling off everything the RDA and the big wigs in Rochdale Council get involved with.
When you hear about "unprecendented investment" from those high paid executives remember they are talking about our hard-earned tax money not something handed out by Father Christmas.
We have been let down. Rochdale deserves better. Those who have been paid so much but delivered so little, need to account for this mess. If they can't then they should be sacked.
'
Peter Gee (20/08/2008 at 20:24)
Henry Kelly Expat (Ireland), Ireland (21/08/2008 at 06:09)
Lancashire Lad (21/08/2008 at 09:21)
Rather than become some bland part of a Manchester 'city region' that will waste billions of pounds and get us all deep into debt, we should go back to the future.
As the recession bites we are all tightening our belts. We are not borrowing more cash to pay for fancy schemes for our houses, leisure and transport so why is Rochdale Council, the RDA and the GMPTE doing so with our money?
Rochdale is broke. It needs fixing.
Here are a few solutions:
Town Centre.
FREE PARKING. Rochdale would become a honey pot. As it stands, we have no chance of competing with Bury, Bolton and other markets. Take a leaf from the supermarkets and out-of-town outlets. Free Parking brings folk in. That is a start and would have more impact than anything else.
How do we pay for this and make Rochdale more distinctive?
Scrap the ridiculous £250,000,000 town centre regeneration redevelopment . These schemes are already failing all over the country. It would be an albatros round our knecks. Higher rents and more empty shops elsewhere. Smaller traders- the ones who make a town special- will be lost.
Lets do simple things- encourage a permanent fish, meat and local veg market. Look at Bury, the demand is there .
Scrap the crazy plans for a £70,000,000 new council office block "Yelloway House" . Keep the smaller regional offices (we all use email nowadays) as these connect with local communities. Why sell off the civic silver to pay for a huge new concrete PFI lump by the river?
Make do and mend.
If RMBC needs more office space in the Town Centre then take over the near empty Taxand Social Security offices at Newgate. Refurbish the black box. It is a good building inside it is just the outside that is ugly. To be distinctive do what the CIS did in Manchester- re cover it in solar cells. It looks great and sends out a 'positive message' so beloved of the spin doctors. '
On that thought, scrap the spin doctors. RMBC alone spent £2 million on them last year. What about the other 'service providers' that waste out tax money on 'positive messaging'. How many glossy brochures and questionaire have you received recently? GMPTE asking loaded questions about congestion charging. The PCT asking what we want for our health yet does what it wants anyway (selling Birch Hill for housing, downgrading our Infirmary, scrapping A&E bluelight services). How many glossy RMBC "Local Matters" do we need? In Soviet Russia it was called Pravda and told the population the good news about potato and tractor production. If the services are good we will know. We don't need patronising propaganda paid for out of our hard-earned tax money.
Scrap the Metrolink extension.
Then we wouldn't need to spend £20 million moving the bus station 50 yards (so the trams don't need to cross the old covered bridge). That would be our contribution to cost cutting so that a congestion charge is not needed.
Transport improvments. Better trains (Oldham loop and mainline) longer carridges. Free shuttle buses to the station. Free park and ride and free car parking. it is not rocket science but would transform our town.
Instead of daft advertising signs saying "Rochdale is booming" lets have Rochdale BLOOMING. Redevelop the town centre and riverside by grassing it over and having more green open space for us all to enjoy for free. The best features in our town centre are the parks surrounding our town hall.
What has really failed Rochdale?
Empty business parks, mad schemes that cost millions, glossy brochures that are now an embarresment. Failed projects.
Soluution -scrap the Rochdale Development Agency. It hasn't been fit for purpose.
Whilst we are at it, why do we have a PFI 'service delivery partner' running many council services and charging an arm and a leg for the privilege? There is a near revolt with many hard working council officers because of the extortionate internal charges billed by the Impact Partnership. Ultimately we all pay for this ridiculos rip-off and commercial layer of bureauracy.
Regime change where the real local power lies. Sorry Mr Ellis. As Chief Executive you have been part of the problem and not the solution. Too many unaccountable deals and decsions have been done in the past decade that has set this town for failure. Time to go. And please don't be excessive with your golden hanshake. We have seen too much of that from senior executives.
Give our hard working police more resources. If we had zero tolerance against thugs, drug dealers and mindless drunken morons then the decent, hard working citizens of this town could return, feel safer and enjoy a chav free environment.
So free parking, common sense public transport, better policing and more central green space paid for civic thrift by scrapping a billion pounds of white elephant projects and an entire tier of spin doctors and over paid and failing executives.
It is time for a big change. Rochdale does deserve much better.