Welcome to Rochdale Borough Council - A thriving place where people want to live, work, visit and do business – a place in which we can all take pride. The borough is located in the southern Pennine moors, in the north-east region of the Greater Manchester conurbation. The borough covers 62 square miles of which about two-thirds is rural. It is characterised by urban developments of dense housing and industrial areas located along major routeways, surrounded by hilly areas of rural land. The borough is divided into four townships based around the towns of Rochdale, Heywood and Middleton, together with the eastern urban area that form the Pennines township. Each township has its own distinctive background and character with which residents identify. The pleasant semi-rural location of the borough with its good road access to the rest of the north-west region makes it a desirable place to live and work.