Put Children at the Heart of Rochdale’s future, argues Danczuk

Date published: 19/09/2007

Rochdale’s Labour Parliamentary Candidate Simon Danczuk has backed a new report which calls for greater consideration of children’s needs in re-building communities. 

A recent Sustainable Development Commission report criticised poorly designed road and housing developments for invading children’s space and preventing them enjoying their local parks and neighbourhoods.

Mr Danczuk has stressed the need for new housing developments in the region to be designed around children’s needs.

With massive investment in housing coming to Rochdale under the Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder, he urged local planners to take on board the report’s findings, which warned of the consequences of ignoring children’s wellbeing when it comes to planning growth and housing developments.

Research suggests that the effects of increased pollution and excessive noise from traffic can affect children’s mental development and reading comprehension.

Mr Danczuk said: "There is enough evidence to suggest that Rochdale needs to take the future of our children much more seriously and if I’m given the opportunity I would want to work with the appropriate agencies to try and create a better and safer environment for our children. We need to create better youth facilities, improve our public parks and green spaces, introduce more traffic calming measures and ensure that new housing avoids blackspots for pollution and noise and includes safer walking areas."

He also urged Rochdale Council to review the status of residential roads where heavy traffic causes excess noise, pollution and safety concerns close to homes and schools. Where possible, traffic calming measures should be introduced and in some cases the roads could be returned to local communities for recreation and green space.

He added: "Earlier this year Paul Rowen called for a law to introduce a 20mph speed limit on all lit roads in built up areas, which I support. However, as Portsmouth Council has since gone on to introduce this speed limit on almost all residential roads he is perfectly capable of getting his Liberal Democrat Council to do this now and start saving lives."

Other areas where he said there was clear evidence pointing to failings in provision for children included parks and more play areas.

He explained: "Resident satisfaction with parks and open spaces in Rochdale is the lowest across Greater Manchester. Research carried out by Rochdale Recreation and Community Services Department has also revealed that the thing young boys and girls in Rochdale would most like to change about the area where they live would be the introduction of more or bigger play areas. Who is listening to them? It’s time someone brought this change about.

"If Rochdale is to get serious about tackling youth crime and creating better opportunities for people to fulfil their potential we need to start creating a much friendlier, child-focused environment."