Plan for apartments on Maclure Road pulled

Plans to build new six-storey apartment block next to Rochdale train station have been pulled.

The development would have seen 29 new flats – said to be ideal for first-time buyers – created close to the town centre, with easy access to Metrolink, rail and bus links.

As part of the scheme, the curved building on the corner of Maclure Road and Station Road – formerly a car workshop, coffee shop and takeaway – demolished to make way for the new homes.

But applicant Farhat Jamil has now decided to withdraw the proposals, and a decision notice published on Rochdale Council’s website earlier this week.

Mrs Jamil said that she had decided to pursue other development opportunities and had ‘a couple of things on the table’ under consideration.

However, hopes the building could be replaced with an exciting new development, are not dead in the water.

It is known that Rochdale Council is keen to regenerate the area – which also boasts the Fire Service Museum and St John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church – and attract young professionals to live in the heart of the town.

Rochdale Council’s cabinet member for regeneration, Councillor John Blundell said: “The council is paying a great deal of attention to this area as per the ‘gateway to the cities’ piece carried by the press last year.

 “The council is working with developers and landowners in the area to draw together plans that will be released later this year.”

• www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/125201/vision-for-rochdale-railway-station-surrounds-set-out

A planning statement submitted with Ms Jamil’s application had hailed the proposed development as ‘an exciting opportunity to redevelop a prominent site set opposite the station and deliver new dwellings in a building of appropriate stature and quality to reflect its location’.

It added that the block – which would have been six storeys at its highest point but drop down to two floors where it met lower buildings on either side – would offer ‘high quality accommodation’ for those wishing to live near the town centre.

The document continued: “The development will transform a poorly designed, dated, underutilised brownfield site bringing it back into beneficial use.

“Furthermore, the proposed development will directly benefit the local and wider economy as a result of an increase in the number of people living in the area.

“This increase will help support new jobs and existing local businesses whilst delivering increased expenditure as a result of additional consumer spend in the area.”

Nick Statham, Local Democracy Reporter