Rochdale Council leaders standing by £80m regeneration scheme

Rochdale Borough Council’s cabinet has reaffirmed its commitment to the £80m Rochdale Riverside retail and leisure development.

Councillors had been asked to consider the future direction of the scheme, following the announcement late last year by anchor tenant Marks & Spencer that it intended to pull out of the development.

But councillors vowed to press ahead with the £80m scheme at a special meeting held last night (Thursday, January 4).

Council leader Cllr Allen Brett said: “As far as we’re concerned, M&S have signed a legally binding contract to take space in the Rochdale Riverside development and we fully expect them to honour that commitment.

“We’re not going to let this issue derail what will be a fantastic development for the people of our borough, bringing 24 shops and restaurants, as well as a six-screen cinema, to the heart of Rochdale town centre.

“We will continue to work with our partner, Genr8, to deliver this game changing development for our residents and visitors.”

Cllr John Blundell, cabinet member for regeneration at Rochdale Borough Council, said: “We’re gearing up to make a number of high profile announcements about the scheme in the next few weeks and more extensive ground investigations, needed to assess conditions before construction starts, will be getting under way next week. This is about a new and exciting future for Rochdale and we fully intend to deliver it.”

In November, a spokeswoman for M&S said of the decision to pull out of the scheme: “We’re adapting to changing customer habits and this means taking some tough decisions – we’re investing in new stores, relocating stores and, in some cases, closing stores.

“In this case, we don’t believe relocating the store is the right move and have therefore informed the council that we no longer intend to proceed.

“Instead our intention is to continue to serve customers in Rochdale from our Yorkshire Street store and from M&S.com.”