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The River Roch, Rochdale and Littleborough Flood Risk Management Scheme (FRMS) seeks to address the high level of flood risk to the towns of Rochdale and Littleborough in Greater Manchester.
The towns have a long history of flooding with significant events recorded in 1991, 1995, 2008 and 2015. On the 26th and 27th December 2015, 324 properties were flooded during Storm Eva. The flood exceeded the previous highest recorded levels along the River Roch, causing widespread damage and disruption in the area. More recently there was flooding in the towns in March 2019, July 2019, November 2019 and 9th February 2020 (Storm Ciara). Several flood warnings for the River Roch at Littleborough and Rochdale were issued during Storm Christoph during January 2021.
The steep catchment and multiple tributaries cause the River Roch to respond rapidly to rainfall with river levels rising quickly. The urbanised river valley has an industrial heritage with a legacy of modified channels, bridges, culverts and weirs which further exacerbate the flooding problem.
Image: VolkerStevin
| Milestone | Start |
| Phase 1A Planning Application Approved | May 2020 |
| Enabling Works Construction Start at Gale | March 2021 |
| Culvert Construction under the Railway at Gale | October 2021 |
| Planning Application Littleborough Phase 1B | July 2022 |
| Full Business Case Approval | September 2023 |
| Construction substantially complete Littleborough Phase 1A areas | February 2024 |
| Construction Start on remaining Littleborough Phase 1B areas | March 2024 |
| Detailed design Start on Rochdale Phase 2 | March 2026 |
| Construction start Rochdale*
*Subject to planning permission and subject to change |
2029 |
Last updated: May 2025 – please note that these dates are subject to change.
Since 2012 the Environment Agency (EA) have worked with key partners, listened to and worked with the local community to generate a flood risk management scheme to reduce the risk of flooding in both Littleborough and Rochdale. Technical feasibility, economic viability, environmental sustainability and social acceptability were all considered when deciding on a preferred option.
The Phase 1 (Littleborough) and Phase 2 (Rochdale) schemes have the following associated benefits:
The scheme is led by the Environment Agency in partnership with Rochdale Borough Council. The scheme is funded by Government Flood Defence Grant in Aid (FDGiA) with contributions from, Network Rail, the North West RFCC, Transport for Greater Manchester, and the Departments for Education and Transport.
The planning application for Phase 1a including the enabling works was submitted to Rochdale Borough Council in January 2020 and was granted in May 2020 subject to planning conditions. The planning application can be viewed on the Rochdale Borough Council Website: https://publicaccess.rochdale.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?keyVal=Q4RTQPNBHTM00&activeTab=summary
The planning application for Phase 1b including the enabling works was submitted to Rochdale Borough Council in April 2022 and was granted in July 2022 subject to planning conditions. The planning application can be viewed on the Rochdale Borough Council Website: https://publicaccess.rochdale.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=externalDocuments&keyVal=RA0S2JNB00700
The construction of the accesses was crucial to the enabling works which saw Network Rail install a new culvert under the Calder Valley railway line. This culvert is a critical new asset for the future flood storage reservoir planned for the Gale site (Phase 1b) which will hold water back and slow the flow of the River Roch and Greenvale Brook into Littleborough town centre.
The access ramp into the Gale West site also enabled the Phase 1a & 1b site compound to be established and will allow the construction of the flood storage reservoir.
This phase consists of the following work packages related to various locations within Littleborough. With the exception of the Enabling Works package, these works began in Early 2022. The works undertaken were:
Riverstone Bridge – Demolition of existing road bridge and footbridge and replacement with a combined road and footbridge, river channel widening and associated landscaping works.
Charles Street – Removal of existing bridge over the River Roch due to causing a constriction to flood flows in the river. Erection of infill wall to close the gap with wall mounted railing and associated landscape works.
Peel Street – Modification of existing flood wall to raise the height and associated landscape works.
Town House Brook – Raising of existing flood defence wall, installation of coarse trash posts, raising and extension of pedestrian ramp and associated landscape works.
Carriage Drive – Bank repairs to re-instate channel width and removal of debris in the existing culverts.
This phase comprises of the construction of a flood storage reservoir at the Gale site just off Todmorden Road. This phase comprises of the following work packages:
Grove Lodge – Construction of a flood defence wall along a rail embankment, habitat and footpath improvements.
Reddyshore Brow – Bank reinforcement, erosion control works to private gardens and waterproofing to private houses.
Gale West –. Construction of earth embankments and sheet pile walls to form a flood impounding structure. In addition, the construction of a flow control structure, maintenance track and access track, installation of CCTV, telemetry kiosk, railings and gates.
Gale East – Construction of an earth embankment and diversion structure to create a flood water impounding structure.
Central Vale and Greenvale Business Park – Reinforced earth flood defence embankments and sheet pile flood defences within Greenvale Business Park.
Ealees Brook – Construction of sheet pile walls along south side of channel and landscape reinstatement works.
GNG Foam Converters – Service diversions required prior to Phase 1b works comprising construction of new flood defence wall in place of existing brick boundary wall.
Initial designs for Rochdale Phase 2 have been completed and the main detailed design study is expected to start in Spring 2026. The Environment Agency look forward to engaging with residents, partners and businesses in the area once proposals have been developed further.
The proposals include flood storage at two sites (land upstream of Albert Royds and land downstream of Smithy Bridge Road). Additionally, raised flood defences are required along sections of the River Roch and Buckley Brook.
The Environment Agency are working to develop a viable design for the scheme and to unlock funding. The Environment Agency will work closely with Rochdale Borough Council and other partners to progress as quickly as possible.
| The construction team have continued to build up the ground levels around the concrete structure of the reservoir outlet. The construction team have also taken out the temporary piles (known as cofferdam piles) that helped with building the structure. A metal ‘trash’ screen has been put on the front of the outlet to catch leaves, branches and rubbish during heavy rain.The construction team will continue building up ground levels over the summer. |
Installation of trash screens on the reservoir outlet structure
| Work has also continued the Gale West reservoir inlet using reinforced concrete (an inlet is a narrow passage that directs water). The inlet forms part of the culvert extension underneath the railway embankment and connects both sides of the reservoir, helping water flow between them.Progress has been slow as the construction team have discovered newts in this area, which is currently being mitigated for. Next steps are to backfill this structure with clay over the summer. |
Gale West reservoir inlet structure
| At the north end of Gale West, near Shottwood Fold, the construction team have started laying clay. This clay will become the access path for maintenance vehicles to reach the reservoir. |
Clay layer being compacted for the access track
| Work is continuing on the clay embankments along the south side (next to Greenvale Business Park) and the east side (next to the railway) of Gale West. The clay is being placed and compacted in layers, and when complete the embankments will create the boundary of the reservoir area.The work to lay and compact the clay will continue over the summer. As planned, work will stop here over the winter due to wet and cold weather and resume in spring the following year. |
Clay compaction for the south embankments
| Construction of the new channel for the River Roch is underway. Once complete, water from the old River Roch channel will be diverted into this new channel and then flow into the reservoir. The same will be done for Greenvale Brook, guiding it into the reservoir through the Gale East diversion structure.The new river channels are designed to be wide and will be lined with coir matting (made from coconut fibres). This matting helps reinforce the channel and prevents the soil washing away while the grass is growing.
Construction of the channel will continue until October, before the fish spawning season starts. |
River Roch new channel diversion (Todmorden Road end)
River Roch new channel diversion
| To complete the works within the channel, the construction team will need to temporarily divert flows in the River Roch. But before the river flows are moved, the fish need to be rescued. A specialist team helped the construction team to move over 200 trout (final number to be confirmed) safely downstream in the River Roch. |
April 2025
At Riverstone Bridge the permanent fencing has been installed and landscaping works are complete.
Fencing at Riverstone Bridge
| At the Gale West reservoir outlet structure, the concrete works to form the culvert and headwall are now complete. The Contractor is backfilling around the outlet structure (85% complete). They are also removing the temporary piles of the cofferdam in preparation for the embankment works that will form the reservoir boundary. It is expected that the temporary piles removal will be completed by the end of the month. |
Gale West reservoir outlet structure
| The Contractor have begun the River Roch diversion preparation works which involves excavating a new channel. The new channel will direct flows through the reservoir and through the reservoir outlet structure which will be the flow control. The existing Roch channel will be filled in and a pipe installed to convey surface water drainage. |
Preparation works for River Roch diversion
| At the Network Rail culvert, the remaining concrete works for the reservoir inlet structure are almost complete. In operation, during a high flow event, water from Gale East will be diverted through this structure and into the main Gale West reservoir basin. |
Construction of the Gale West reservoir inlet structure beside the railway
| At the spillway stilling basin, landscaping works are currently underway, which includes the levelling of ground at the rear of the piles and grass seeding. Gabion baskets are also being installed, forming a wall that will help channel flows during an exceedance event. These works are expected to be completed by the end of April. |
Gale West Spillway
February 2025
At Riverstone Bridge, the Heras fencing has been removed, some minor landscaping works are still to be completed. This includes replacement of some of the dead trees.
Please refer to the colour coded map of the Littleborough Ph1b site that corresponds to the text in the monthly updates
At Gale West, alongside the railway line, the Contractor is progressing the construction of the culvert beneath the railway which will connect the Gale East storage and Gale West storage.
Gale West railway line diversion culvert
| At Gale West outlet structure. construction is ongoing and is about 80% complete. |
Gale West reservoir outlet structure stilling basin
| At Gale West along the railway line, a 500T crane will be lifting precast concrete culvert sections into the cofferdam to extend the existing railway culvert into the reservoir area. |
July 2025
At Gale East, the construction team have nearly completed the concrete works at the upstream end of the diversion structure located beneath the railway. Work has now started on backfilling the excavation area.
The construction team will continue backfilling of this area and finish the detailing of the concrete works over the summer.
Concrete works at the Gale East diversion structure
April 2025
At the Gale East diversion inlet structure, the Contractor are progressing with concrete works. They have poured the base slabs and are now constructing the walls, which will, in future, divert water through the Network Rail culvert into the main Gale West reservoir storage basin.
Gale East diversion structure
February 2025
At Gale East, for the diversion structure, the cofferdam has now been excavated and formed to create a dry working environment. Piling works within the cofferdam have commenced. This is to prevent seepage under the diversion structure. The Contractor will install the clay cut off for the diversion structure.
April 2025
The Contractor has been pollarding trees ahead of plans to remove the trees later this year. Removing the tree branches now will prevent birds from nesting here before the trees are taken out.
The Contractor has also completed additional trial holes along the footpath in advance of the creating of the access road from Todmorden road to construct the Centre Vale flood defences. These trial holes were necessary to determine the depth of buried services and allow a temporary works service protection design to be completed.
April 2025
The Contractor has been pollarding trees ahead of plans to remove the trees later this year. Removing the tree branches now will prevent birds from nesting here before the trees are taken out.
The Contractor has also completed additional trial holes along the footpath in advance of the creating of the access road from Todmorden road to construct the Centre Vale flood defences. These trial holes were necessary to determine the depth of buried services and allow a temporary works service protection design to be completed.
April 2025
The Contractor has completed all enabling works.
February 2025
At Grove Lodge, tree clearance works commenced from 4th February to 14th February. A footpath diversion was put in place during these works.
July 2025
At Shottwood Fold, the construction team have started to create a new access path. This will let allow access to the riverbanks to carry out strengthening work.
The next activity will be to start piling in this location and to complete the riverbank reinforcement works. Works need to be complete by October, before the start of the fish spawning season.
April 2025
Final detailed design is nearing completion with construction expected to start in the next few months.
February 2025
At Shottwood fold, tree clearance works have been completed, and construction will commence this summer.
September 2024
At Ealees Brook, behind the Canal Wharf, Ground Investigation works have been substantially completed. The results from the Ground Investigation will help the Environment Agency finalise the design and plan the construction.
July 2025
On the 7th August, the Littleborough Flood Action Group will be attending a site visit and will be provided an update on scheme progress.
Rochdale Borough Council with the National Flood Forum are currently offering an educational animation workshop to a few primary schools along the River Roch. They are working with artists who specialise in teaching stop-motion animation to primary-aged students. The aim is to create a series of animations created by different primary schools along the River Roch about their section of the river. They have already developed a short stop-motion clip with Heybrook Primary School about flooding.
Their aim is to teach students about flooding in a creative way, and the hope is to use the final video to showcase the flood awareness of schools in the borough.
If you have links with a local school (primary or secondary) and would be interested in hosting a workshop relating to flood resilience please contact –
Email: [email protected]
April 2025
A Chocolate Easter Egg donation will be made to the Rochdale Food Bank.
July 2025
On Thursday 31st July, the Environment Agency had a stall at Littleborough’s Feel Good Family Picnic at Hare Hill Park, alongside the Resilient Roch project. The EA bought along their ‘Underwater Hazards Tank’ where children were tasked with finding hidden hazards in dirty ‘floodwater’. The activity was a great success and lots of children learned to stay away from flood water in real life! The EA also spoke with Littleborough residents about the progress of the flood scheme and really enjoyed participating on the day.
Environment Agency stall at Littleborough’s Feel Good Family Picnic at Hare Hill Park, alongside the Resilient Roch project.
The Environment Agency’s Underwater Hazards Tank
On Saturday 5th July, the Environment Agency, Rochdale Borough Council and Murphy were invited to a site visit for a number of Japanese delegates, ranging from academics, Japanese government and private business. The visit was arranged by the Department for Business and Trade and was a great opportunity to show the delegates some of the Natural Flood Management and Biodiversity Net Gain which has been delivered in Rochdale, along with showing the visitors the Littleborough Flood Risk Management Scheme. The visit gave a chance to learn a lot about Japanese flood risk management. As well as sharing knowledge and expertise on flood risk management processes in England and the concept of Biodiversity Net Gain, which the Japanese government are researching with the aim of rolling out a similar scheme in Japan.
Japanese organisations who had respresentatives attending on the day were:
Site visit with the Japanese delegates to the NFM projects in Rochdale
Petrus have sent the construction team some photos of their lovely nature walk and footpath they have created. This has recently been completed at their Greave House supported housing project in Rochdale, creating a tranquil area for their residents to enjoy.
The walkway has been topped with wood chippings that the construction team donated to them earlier in the year.
Image of footpath created by Petrus
The construction team are very happy to have delivered our donation of 2 x tonne bags of wood chippings to the Littleborough Allotment Society for them to use on their allotment plots.
Image of wood chippings donated to Littleborough Allotment Society
A few weeks ago, the construction team held a site visit to support the Institute of Water Rising Stars Programme, which is designed to develop the skills of a select group of early career professionals. A small group of 7 visited Littleborough 1b site to learn about our works on the Flood Risk Management Scheme.
Early career professionals
Early career professionals
The construction team are installing protective screens at the Gale West outlet to stop branches, leaves and other debris from entering the culvert and causing blockages.
This upgrade will help with:
A smart step toward safer, cleaner waterways!
Protective screen at Gale West
The construction team are very happy to announce that VolkerStevin received a Gold Award at this year’s CCS Awards Day!
VolkerStevin were awarded 3 bonus points for demonstrating excellent performance in utilising digital technologies to track and reduce carbon and eco-friendly piling during operations.
VolkerStevin Construction Team at CSS Awards
April 2025
VolkerStevin has donated four 1 tonne bags of wood chipping to PIER Incredible Edible Gardens in Rochdale. PIER is part of PETRUS who are a charity supporting the homeless in Rochdale. The Environment Agency will be donating a further six 1 tonne bags of wood chippings to PETRUS with their supported housing projects at Greave House, Rochdale. PETRUS are developing the surrounding grounds and creating a nature walk to enhance support sessions. The wood chippings will be used to cover the footpath.
Furthermore, some of timber that were felled in the scheme have been donated to Stansfield Hall Primary School, who have re-used them in their forest garden for their nature classes. The children have had fun building teepee dens from the branches and are using the log rings as seats.
VolkerStevin has donated new sleeping bags and coats to PETRUS and numerous food boxes were donated to the local community food banks over Christmas 2024.
Rochdale Borough Council held a coffee morning on the Monday 13th January at Oliver Sandring care home on Todmorden road and invited VolkerStevin and the Environment Agency to attend to any local community questions
Littleborough Flood Risk Management Scheme are proud to have hosted the launch of the ‘Constructing Change’ initiative on Wednesday 5th March. This was a collaboration between multiple organisations across the construction sector. It aimed to provide local female students with an experience of the construction industry and insight into what career opportunities the industry has to offer. Female students from Wardle Academy in Rochdale visited the site to gain experience of construction and learn about careers in construction. The day included presentations by contractors VolkerStevin, consultants Jacobs, suppliers Flannery’s as well as the talks from the Environment Agency, AE Yates and JN Bentley.
The scheme also had another school visit held on Wednesday 19th March – Matthew Moss High School who joined us for a Get into construction school site visit. The students were given a presentation on the project and site team members gave a presentation on their roles and how they got into construction, followed by a viewing of the working site area.
March 2025
The Environment Agency have donated four 1 tonne bags of wood chipping to PIER Incredible Edible Gardens in Rochdale. PIER is part of the PETRUS who are a charity supporting the homeless in Rochdale. We will be further donating six 1 tonne bags of wood chippings to PETRUS with their supported housing projects at Greave House, Rochdale. PETRUS are developing the surrounding ground s and creating a nature walk to enhance support sessions. Our wood chippings will be used to cover the footpath. If you are interested learning more or supporting the work that PETRUS do, please refer to their web page.
For more information on work that has been carried out as part of the scheme, please click here.
The Environment Agency project team have produced some visualisations which show an artist’s impression of how the flood defences will look following completion. The below image includes arrows which indicate the viewing perspective of the visualisations along with images of the existing view and the visualisation, which allows a comparison between the two images.
Hover your cursor over ‘Existing View’ and ‘Visualisation’ to view the images.
Please click here to download the Environment Agency’s Design and Benefits Guide for Littleborough Phase 1 of the Rochdale and Littleborough Flood Risk Management Scheme.
The Environment Agency’s Project team and Volker Stevin, the contractor, will be at Littleborough Library on the following dates between 10am and 2.30pm, to speak to the community about the project and answer any queries or concerns. Please feel free to drop in at any time during these times.
However, if you have any queries, concerns or would like to make an appointment with the Environment Agency’s project team in between these dates, please email: [email protected] or if you do not have access to email, please call 02030 250495 and they will arrange a convenient appointment for you.
| Thursday 24th April 2025 | Thursday 29th May 2025 | Thursday 26th June 2025 |
| Thursday 24th July 2025 | Thursday 28th August 2024 | Thursday 11th September 2025 |
The first phase of works involves tree and vegetation clearance at one of the Littleborough sites. The integrated EA, Jacobs and Volker Stevin project team working in close partnership with Mersey Forest and Rochdale Borough Council have used the wood arising from the tree clearance works for Natural Flood Management works in the Littleborough area. The Natural Flood Management works assist in upland land management to “slow the flow” of watercourses to support flood attenuation and flood risk arising from fluvial flooding.
Cleared area of trees – retained wood visible for NFM use
Trees cleared from Littleborough site being utilised for Natural Flood Management works
Tree chippings from the felled trees have gone to Hollingworth Lake Park to be used to make a footpath with help of local volunteers. Trunks that were collected from the construction activity have gone from Lydgate in Oldham for use in a tree nursery and Smithills in Bolton have used log barriers and tree planting to help store water in upstream areas, to prevent flood risk. Using the trees as Natural Flood Management will protect the local community’s from flooding impacts but also bring positive benefits for wildlife, water quality and climate regulation.
Felled trees being used as log barriers at Smithills in Bolton
The Environment Agency will continue to use Littleborough and Wardleworth Flood Action Groups to share information with residents as well as producing more newsletters and holding public drop-in sessions (subject to Covid-19 restrictions) linked to key stages of the project.
If you are outside the flood area and would like to be kept up to date with the Rochdale and Littleborough Flood Risk Management Scheme via email, please email [email protected] to be added to the mailing list.
Visit Rochdale Borough Council’s website for flood risk information: www.rochdale.gov.uk/flooding.
You can also follow the Environment Agency on Twitter: @EnvAgencyNW
Volker Engage App
Download the Volker Engage App to stay updated with works on the Rochdale and Littleborough Flood Risk Management Scheme and share your feedback with the Environment Agency.
Scan the QR code below, or search ‘Volker Engage’ in your app store to download the app. Alternatively you can follow these links for Apple and Google devices:
