Your top 10: Rochdale regeneration, Cheshire life, and a reminder to make a will

IT is fitting that all three top news stories relate to the property sector in the week we dispatched reporters to cover the region’s activities and announcements at annual property exhibition MIPIM UK, in London.

First up was our breaking news on what Rochdale’s proposed £250m shopping and leisure development could look like.

The development is a key part of Rochdale town centre’s regeneration programme, giving the town a much needed ‘shot in the arm’.

It includes the re-opening of the River Roch and the construction of Rochdale Borough Council’s customer service centre, library and office building, Number One Riverside. High strees giants Next and M&S have already signed up to the scheme, with Reel cinema planning to open a six screen cinema in the development.

A perennial favourite is any news relating to new homes in Cheshire – this time an application to build nearly 1,000 homes on land at Kingsley Fields in Nantwich has been submitted by housebuilders Taylor Wimpey, Redrow Homes and David Wilson Homes.

It is believed to be the largest single reserved matters application ever to be submitted to Cheshire East Council.

Finally, late Manchester property millionaire Carol Ainscow’s family told how they were ‘saddened and disappointed’ following news that an Appeal Court will reopen the case of her former partner, and look again at the original settlement following their split.

Helen Roocroft was in an 18-year relationship with her property tycoon partner Ms Ainscow, when they separated in 2009.

Ms Ainscow, whose property company Artisan carried out developments across Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield and London, died aged 55 after battling a brain tumour. She did not make a will setting out her wishes for her estate.

After her death evidence was discovered that she may have misled the courts about her true wealth during the dissolution of their civil partnership, saying she had lost millions during the property crash.

After legal battles in the lower family courts and High Court, the unusual case was heard in the Court of Appeal in July this year and all three appeal judges agreed with Ms Roocroft that she has a right to argue for her settlement to be set aside. The judgment handed down on October 14 said that Ms Roocroft had submitted evidence suggesting that “the deceased’s income at the time of the consent order was three times that which she had stated in her Statement of Information”.

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