Contractors have broken ground on 33 new apartments in Rochdale as part of a major regeneration programme focused on the borough's key transport hubs.

The one and two-bedroom homes for private rent are being built at the corner of Maclure Road and Station Road, close to Rochdale Railway Station. Stockport-based Oak Construction Projects is delivering the build following the demolition of the former structure on the site, which previously housed a furniture shop and a supermarket.

Rising to six storeys, the scheme will include four ground-floor commercial units to let and will be constructed to net zero standards.

The project has secured almost £1 million from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s brownfield land fund and forms part of the council’s rail corridor strategy, which aims to deliver up to 7,000 new homes and commercial space around the borough’s five railway stations.

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The site is a short walk from the Station Gardens development on Maclure Road, where 81 new net zero homes are being built on the former central retail park, a brownfield site vacant for several years. Supported by £15 million from the government’s Community Regeneration Partnerships Fund, Station Gardens will provide two, three and four-bedroom homes.

The wider plans for the area around Rochdale Railway Station include a new public square, a new station entrance and enhanced park and ride facilities.

Councillor Danny Meredith, cabinet member for regeneration and housing at Rochdale Borough Council, said: "Transforming unused brownfield sites into new homes around key transport hubs is a major priority for us, and we’re already seeing change on the ground with Station Gardens and this project now both under way and being delivered.

"Situated on the doorstep of Rochdale railway station, which offers easy links to the rest of our borough and into cities likes Leeds and Manchester, and also just 10 minutes' walk from Rochdale town centre, which has been transformed in recent years, I‘m confident that these new homes will prove very popular."

The scheme is being delivered by Rochdale Development Agency on behalf of the council and is expected to take around 12 months to complete. Project partners include architects and quantity surveyors Leach Rhodes Walker, with Safer Sphere as designers.