Rod Aldridge

Rod Aldridge is an entrepreneur with over 40 years experience of working in the public and private sectors.

He is the founder of the Capita Group retiring in July 2006 as Chairman. Subsequently he established The Aldridge Foundation to continue his work on public service reform and to focus on his charitable activities.

• Educational underachievement & Social Exclusion
• Public Service Reform Partnership and Development
• Community Engagement

Lowry Welcomes the BBC

The Lowry welcomes the BBC to Salford Quays

The news that the BBC move to Salford is now almost certain to go ahead is wonderful for both the region and The Lowry in particular. The Lowry has been an active participant in the bid process, providing whatever support and help it could to ensure this exciting vision was realised. The BBC move completes an astonishing renaissance of the dockland area that has been decades in the planning but executed in just ten years.

In 2000 The Lowry opened its doors for the first time and was seen as a dramatic catalyst for further development of the old Manchester Docks. In 2010 the arrival of the BBC will complete the redevelopment of the waterfront area and provide an equally dramatic architecturally iconic building to sit alongside our own award winning venue and Daniel Libeskind’s Imperial War Museum North.

More people now work within The Quays than did so at the height of its industrial powers as a major inland docks linked to the sea via the Manchester Ship Canal. This workforce is set to increase by up to 15,500 as not only BBC personnel join us here but other media related industries and The University of Salford’s Media Studies faculty. The development of a world class media city will have a profound impact on the area. The Lowry has been an active participant in The Quays Marketing Consortium – a self formed group dedicated to encouraging visitors into the destination from all over the country and abroad. Adding this dramatic piece to The Quays jigsaw will greatly assist our efforts in attracting media interest and raising the profile of Greater Manchester’s waterfront. It will also ensure that the public transport infrastructure is vastly improved making it much easier for visitors and commuters, both local and from all over the region, to access the area.

This influx of visitors and workers creates an exciting new audience for The Lowry. As a not for profit charitable trust our key task is to maximise our commercial opportunities so that monies generated can help fuel our ambitious artistic aims – this new market is likely to be interested in the arts and is located just a few yards from our front door! It will lead to increased theatre ticket sales, extend the utilisation of our meeting and conference facilities and encourage people to enjoy our waterfront restaurant and café bars.

The BBC has publicly stated its desire to reach out to its new neighbours in the Salford and Trafford local authority areas and we believe The Lowry is perfectly placed to assist them in this objective. The Lowry is committed to engaging actively with the local community. We are proud of the fact that we welcome more theatregoers from Salford than from any other local authority area and over 100 schools from Salford took part in activities within The Lowry over the past 12 months. We see ourselves working closely with the BBC to create exciting new joint activities which will encourage even more of our local community to visit us and The Quays. This dialogue has already commenced with the BBC Philharmonic particularly keen to forge a strong partnership.

The arrival of Media City in 2010 will create employment locally and regionally, enhance our destination in terms of product offering to create a genuinely world class destination and provide much needed additional transport links – we are determined to ensure we play our part in making Media City the success it surely deserves to be. These are exciting times for The Lowry.

Rod Aldridge
Chairman
Lowry Charitable Trust