Your council

Rochdale: what’s happening where you live

What the council itself has published on the five things it most shapes for a household: homes, getting about, the bill, the local environment and schools. Each line is quoted from the council’s own document, with the link. This page says what was decided or proposed; it never says whether it was right.

This page is built from official registers only; the council’s own publications have not been read yet, and every line below says so where that leaves a gap.

Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council: Metropolitan district (unitary), England, North West; part of the GMCA combined authority. GOV.UK lists it as a unitary council. ONS code E08000005.

Council website

Do it online

The council’s own service pages as listed by GOV.UK’s Local Links Manager (Open Government Licence), refreshed weekly; the same list of everyday services, in the same order, for every council, in GOV.UK’s wording.

Housing

We haven't read this council's own publications yet. The council’s website

Transport

We haven't read this council's own publications yet. The council’s website

Council tax

Band D set by Rochdale for 2026–27: £2,161.58 of a £2,600.83 total bill in the area. MHCLG, Council Tax levels set by local authorities in England 2026 to 2027 (Open Government Licence).

We haven't read this council's own publications yet. The council’s website

Environment

We haven't read this council's own publications yet. The council’s website

Education

We haven't read this council's own publications yet. The council’s website

Changes to schools in this area recorded by the Department for Education Updated automatically

No school here is currently recorded as proposed to open or close.

In the last twelve months: 6 opened (3 new provision, 3 academy converter), 4 closed (3 academy converter, 1 for academy)

Middleton Parish Church School (primary) — closed; reason recorded: for academy, 31 October 2025
St John Fisher Roman Catholic Primary School, Rochdale (primary) — closed; reason recorded: academy converter, 31 October 2025
St John's Roman Catholic Primary School, Rochdale (primary) — closed; reason recorded: academy converter, 31 October 2025
St Margaret's Church of England Primary School (primary) — closed; reason recorded: academy converter, 31 January 2026
Darul Madinah Rochdale Ltd — open; reason recorded: new provision, 13 November 2025
Darul Madinah Rochdale Ltd — open; reason recorded: new provision, 13 November 2025
Middleton Parish Church School (primary) — open; reason recorded: new provision, 1 November 2025
St John Fisher Roman Catholic Primary School, a Voluntary Academy (primary) — open; reason recorded: academy converter, 1 November 2025
St John's Roman Catholic Primary School, a Voluntary Academy (primary) — open; reason recorded: academy converter, 1 November 2025
St Margaret's Church of England Primary School (primary) — open; reason recorded: academy converter, 1 February 2026

Get Information about Schools, DfE’s register of every school in England, refreshed daily (Open Government Licence). The register’s own reason is shown: most closures and openings are a school becoming an academy, which changes who runs it, not whether it is there.

What the council plans to spend, 2026–27

The budget for each service, as Rochdale reported it to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The same headings, in the same order, for every council in England.

Rochdale: budget by service, 2026 to 2027
Service	Budget
Education services	£233.2 million
Highways and transport services	£14.0 million
Children's social care	£88.2 million
Adult social care	£120.1 million
Public health	£18.3 million
Housing services (general fund only)	£9.1 million
Cultural and related services	£11.2 million
Environmental and regulatory services	£15.5 million
Planning and development services	£6.6 million
Police services	none budgeted
Fire and rescue services	none budgeted
Central services	£18.0 million
Other services	£1.9 million
Total service expenditure	£536.2 million

Net current expenditure: net of sales, fees and charges; spending funded by the NHS, such as through the Better Care Fund, is excluded.A minus figure means the service’s income is budgeted to be more than its spending. “None budgeted” usually means another body runs that service here. Source: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Revenue Account Budget 2026 to 2027, individual local authority data (part 1), updated 11 June 2026 (Open Government Licence).

Rochdale in numbers

Official statistics for the whole council area. Each figure is the latest published, with the period it covers.

Total population: 235,561 people 30 June 2024 · Office for National StatisticsMid-year estimate of the total number of people
Median age: 37 years 30 June 2024 · Office for National StatisticsMedian age of people
Gross disposable household income per head: £19,053 2024 · Office for National StatisticsAverage income per person (£) after taxes and direct benefits
Gross median weekly pay: £601 30 April 2025 · Office for National StatisticsGross median weekly pay based on where people live (£)
Children in relative poverty after housing costs: 36.9% April 2024 to March 2025 · Department for Work and PensionsPercentage of children aged under 16 living in relative low income families After Housing Costs (AHC)
Claimant Count: 6.0% 2025 · Office for National StatisticsPercentage of people aged 16 to 64 who are claiming unemployment-related benefits
Average house price: £209,389 July 2026 · HM Land RegistryAverage monthly price of a property (£)
Housing affordability ratio (residence-based): 5.9 affordability ratio 1 April 2025 · Office for National StatisticsRatio of median house price to median gross annual residence-based earnings
Female healthy life expectancy: 54.2 years 2022 to 2024 · Office for National StatisticsAverage years expected to be lived in good health for females born in the given year
Male healthy life expectancy: 53.8 years 2022 to 2024 · Office for National StatisticsAverage years expected to be lived in good health for males born in the given year
Greenhouse gas emissions: 3.6 tCO2e per capita 2024 · Department for Energy Security and Net ZeroGreenhouse gas emissions (tCO2e) per capita
Gigabit capable broadband: 92.0% 1 January 2026 · OfcomPercentage of premises that have coverage from a gigabit-capable service (download speeds of 1,000 Mbps or more)
Public electric vehicle chargers: 71.7 per 100,000 population 1 July 2026 · Department for Transport, sourced from ZapmapPublicly available electric vehicle chargers at all speeds per 100,000 people
Active businesses: 7,750 number of enterprises 2024 · Office for National StatisticsBusinesses with turnover or employment in current year

Gathered by the Office for National Statistics in Explore Local Statistics (Open Government Licence), refreshed daily. Some figures aren’t published for every nation, so the list can be shorter outside England.

Who runs the council

60 seats in 2026. Run by: Labour, with a majority. Open Council Data (public domain).

Councillors by party: Labour Party 31, Reform UK 15, Conservative and Unionist 7, Workers Party of Britain 4, Liberal Democrats 3.

Next scheduled council election: 6 May 2027.

All 60 councillors, by ward

Ashley-Louise Gilbert (Reform UK) — Balderstone & Kirkholt
Daniel Meredith (Labour Party) — Balderstone & Kirkholt
Jordan Tarrant-Short (Reform UK) — Balderstone & Kirkholt
Angela Smith (Conservative and Unionist) — Bamford
Philip Beal (Conservative and Unionist) — Bamford
Stephen Anstee (Conservative and Unionist) — Bamford
Aasim Rashid (Labour Party) — Castleton
Aisling-Blaise Gallagher (Labour Party) — Castleton
Dave Jones (Reform UK) — Castleton
Farooq Ahmed (Workers Party of Britain) — Central Rochdale
Sameena Zaheer (Labour Party) — Central Rochdale
Waqar Khan (Workers Party of Britain) — Central Rochdale
Dylan Williams (Labour Party) — East Middleton
Georgina Jacques (Labour Party) — East Middleton
Terry Smith (Labour Party) — East Middleton
Mark Stephens (Reform UK) — Healey
Shah Wazir (Labour Party) — Healey
Tricia Ayrton (Labour Party) — Healey
Carol Wardle (Labour Party) — Hopwood Hall
Peter Hodgkinson (Labour Party) — Hopwood Hall
Steve Potter (Reform UK) — Hopwood Hall
Daalat Ali (Labour Party) — Kingsway
Rachel Massey (Labour Party) — Kingsway
Shakil Ahmed (Labour Party) — Kingsway
Richard Jackson (Labour Party) — Littleborough Lakeside
Tom Besford (Labour Party) — Littleborough Lakeside
Victoria Howard (Reform UK) — Littleborough Lakeside
Aiza Rashid (Labour Party) — Milkstone & Deeplish
Minaam Ellahi (Workers Party of Britain) — Milkstone & Deeplish
Mohammed Shafiq (Workers Party of Britain) — Milkstone & Deeplish
Andy Kelly (Liberal Democrats) — Milnrow & Newhey
Anthony Gilbert (Reform UK) — Milnrow & Newhey
David Bamford (Liberal Democrats) — Milnrow & Newhey
Michael Holly (Conservative and Unionist) — Norden
Paul Ellison (Conservative and Unionist) — Norden
Peter Winkler (Conservative and Unionist) — Norden
Bev Place (Labour Party) — North Heywood
Michael Howard (Reform UK) — North Heywood
Paul O'Neill (Labour Party) — North Heywood
Elizabeth Atewologun (Labour Party) — North Middleton
Kathryn Bromfield (Labour Party) — North Middleton
Lee Wolf (Reform UK) — North Middleton
Amna Mir (Labour Party) — Smallbridge & Firgrove
John Blundell (Labour Party) — Smallbridge & Firgrove
Mohammed Khizer (Liberal Democrats) — Smallbridge & Firgrove
June West (Labour Party) — South Middleton
Matthew Pilkington (Reform UK) — South Middleton
Patricia Dale (Labour Party) — South Middleton
Amber Nisa (Labour Party) — Spotland & Falinge
Carl Faulkner (Reform UK) — Spotland & Falinge
Faisal Rana (Labour Party) — Spotland & Falinge
Adam Branton (Conservative and Unionist) — Wardle, Shore & West Littleborough
John Taylor (Reform UK) — Wardle, Shore & West Littleborough
Philip Barrett (Reform UK) — Wardle, Shore & West Littleborough
Linda Robinson (Labour Party) — West Heywood
Peter Joinson (Labour Party) — West Heywood
Stuart Crawford (Reform UK) — West Heywood
Neil Emmott (Labour Party) — West Middleton
Susan Smith (Labour Party) — West Middleton
Trevor Taylor (Reform UK) — West Middleton

Each councillor’s register of interests is on the council’s own website; we have not yet located the page. Councillors from Open Council Data as recorded after the May 2026 elections; a by-election since then may have changed one seat. Attendance and allowances are not shown.

This council’s meeting papers are not yet read automatically, so decisions and motions are not listed here; they are on the council’s website.

Write to your councillors → WriteToThem (mySociety) finds them from your postcode; nothing is sent through this site.

Cite this page

Harvard style. Every figure on the page also names its original source, which is usually the better thing to cite.

Every council page has the same five headings in the same order. Sources are the council’s own publications and official statistics. Council list: mySociety, UK Local Authorities (CC BY 4.0) and WhatDoTheyKnow authorities (CC BY-SA 4.0); council websites, tiers and service links: GOV.UK (Open Government Licence); codes: ONS Code History Database (Open Government Licence). Corrections: hello@whatsittome.org.