09/09/2026
A derelict mill. A packed arena. And a town that finally got to say what it wants.
On Monday, more than 2,000 people from Middleton in Greater Manchester had their voices heard – at an event with Steve Coogan, our CEO Rose Marley, the Mayor and Rochdale Borough Council's leader. They were all in the room together, alongside hundreds of local people, at a packed out Middleton Arena.
Here's the result: Warwick Mill – empty and boarded up for over a decade – is finally being bought back by the council. Why? Because that's exactly what local people asked for.
It's part of something bigger. Middleton is on track to get the UK's first co-operative Mayoral Development Corporation. In plain terms, a way of running the town's regeneration where residents, businesses and local organisations get a real say in what happens, rather than a survey after the decisions have already been made.
As Rose Marley put it: "This is co-operation in its truest sense, and it's how Middleton's future should be built."
Get the full story: https://buff.ly/T5CAQtm
Middleton Co-operating
