When Harrogate Spring Water drew up plans to expand its bottling facilities, little did it know that 10 years down the line the battle for planning permission would still be ongoing.

Here's a look back on the last decade of back-and-forth between Harrogate Spring Water, various councils and concerned local residents.

2017

Almost a decade ago, Harrogate Spring Water, then a family-owned business, received outline planning permission to expand its factory next to the Pinewoods, on Harlow Moor Road.

Outline planning permission meant the company, owned by the Cain family, had permission in principle, subject to the detail on issues such as access and design being approved, to expand.

Concerns were raised about how the expansion would involve chopping down about 500 trees in a section of the Pinewoods known as Rotary Wood, which was planted by local schoolchildren in the 2000s. 

However, the company argued it was necessary for growth, and would create 50 jobs.

2019

The company was bought by French multinational firm Danone, with the Cain family remaining as minority staeholders.

2020

A reserved matters planning application was submitted, covering issues such as layout, design and access. Once this was passed, the company could press ahead with its plans.  

A key pledge was to replace trees that were cut down. Local groups, including Harrogate Civic Society, Pinewoods Conservation Group, Zero Carbon Harrogate and the Rotary Club of Harrogate, met repeatedly with Harrogate Spring Water representatives to agree on where trees could be replanted – but failed to come to an agreement.

New plans were submitted in November that increased the scale of the extension, from 0.77 hectares to 0.94 hectares, attracting hundreds of fresh objections.

2021

In January, Harrogate Borough Council's planning committee voted to refuse Harrogate Spring Water’s reserved matters planning application – leaving the company with the option either to appeal, submit a new application or revise its original outline planning from 2017.

It chose the latter option and announced plans to consult with the community.

2023

Harrogate Spring Water said it had made amendments to its plans after a lengthy period of consultation.

The company made a contractual agreement with a landowner to buy a two-acre site and plant 1,200 trees, open to the public, if the application was approved.

Managing director Richard Hall also said the firm had an agreement with a local charity "that doesn’t want to be named" to plant another 1,500 trees in a "local and accessible site".

2024

In February the company submitted a fresh reserved matters application to the newly formed North Yorkshire Council, detailing the size and design of the expanded production facility as well as information on matters including landscaping.

Further amendments to the application were made in October. 

2025

North Yorkshire Council’s Harrogate and Knaresborough planning committee was due to determine the application at the end of October, and a council case officer recommended the plans be approved.

The officer's report said the proposal "would cause harm (in particular the loss of trees and the impact on ecology and the landscape)" but concluded that this could be "adequately mitigated such that the economic benefits of the proposal outweighed the harm".

However, councillors on the planning committee deferred a decision, saying they needed to know the terms of a proposed section 106 legal agreement between the applicant and the council.

Campaigners pointed out that even if permission had been granted, there would be a six-week window when the owner of Rotary Wood, North Yorkshire Council, would have to invite bids for the land, since it had been declared an asset of community value (ACV).

That would potentially enable community campaigners to raise the funds to buy the wood, pulling the rug from beneath Harrogate Spring Water.

2026

The application returned to the planning committee again in April. Once again a council officer recommended they approve the scheme despite the fact it had received 1,076 objections and only 12 expressions of support - meaning 98.78% opposed it.

The day before the planning committee meeting on April 17, celebrities such as Dames Judi Dench and Joanna Lumley spoke out publicly, criticising the plans to fell hundreds of trees.

In a dramatic twist, the committee unanimously rejected the application, giving two reasons for this decision.

The first centred on landscaping and the replanting of trees. Cllr Peter Lacey, a Liberal Democrat member of the committee, felt the dispersal of trees was “inadequate” and contravened the national planning policy framework.

The second reason for refusal, which was proposed by another Lib Dem, Cllr Hannah Gostlow, related to the appearance of the factory expansion, stating that it ‘lacks local distinctiveness’.

This rejection gave Harrogate Spring Water three options: to appeal the decision, resolve the concerns raised by councillors and submit another application or drop the request completely.

It had six months to appeal – giving a deadline of October 17.