Dale have been awarded the Freedom of the Borough by the Council after their contributions that the football club have made to the town.
Of course, no one's entirely sure what that means. It would appear that it's pretty much just a token of appreciation by the council in recognition of the football club putting the town's name on the map. It's not something dished out too often by the Council with previous winners being Gracie Fields and Cyril Smith unsurprisingly.
What we get for this award is a casket in which the freedom scroll is contained. Also, it is assumed that we will now have the powers to run sheep through the town centre any time we like, that's assuming we'd want to bother with the town centre.
We'll be officially given our freedom later on this year in a ceremony, and it's expected that Dale supporters will be able to attend this event. This is the second "gift" that the council have bestowed upon on us after the civil ceremony on the town hall balcony after Wembley.