Councillors considering voting against Harrogate Spring Water’s controversial plans to expand its bottling plant risk a costly appeals process if it’s refused.

One Conservative councillor told the Stray Ferret a potential appeal will be weighing on councillors’ minds, with members of the planning committee trying to avoid leaving taxpayers with a hefty bill that could be as much as £250,000.

In recent days, public pressure has ramped up for councillors to vote against the proposal which campaigners say will harm the local environment. It’s become one of the most emotive planning applications to hit Harrogate in years, yet emotion does not factor into planning policy and the law.

A report from Harrogate Borough Council’s case officer Mark Williams recommends the plans for approval, subject to conditions, citing Local Plan policies that councillors overwhelmingly voted to adopt.

It means for the planning committee to refuse the application they would need a convincing reason or risk the council being taken to appeal by Danone, which has deep pockets.

Read more:

• TV presenter criticises Harrogate Spring Water’s Pinewoods plans

• How Harrogate Borough Council benefits from Harrogate Spring Water plant

Economic growth

Another Conservative councillor told the Stray Ferret the planning committee should be focusing on the business benefits of the proposals.

HBC’s report also cites the government’s National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) that states that planning decisions should help create the conditions in which businesses can invest, expand and adapt.

It says “significant weight” should be placed on the need to support economic growth and productivity, taking into account both local business needs and wider opportunities for development.

However, HBC’s Mark Williams’ report concedes that the loss of trees “does weigh against the proposed development.”

Political risk

Whilst the local Liberal Democrats and Conservatives have not publicly voiced support or opposition for the plans, political parties who don’t hold seats on Harrogate Borough Council have been more vocal.

Harrogate & District Green Party has long campaigned against the bottling plant and the local Labour Party also criticised the proposals, saying protection of woodland is “even more key at a time when we are facing a climate emergency”.

But the silence of the Conservatives and Lib Dems reflects the political risk involved in the decision tomorrow.

Conservative councillor for Harrogate Harlow, Jim Clark, who also sits on the planning committee, would not be drawn on which way he’ll be voting.

Conservative councillor for Harrogate Valley Gardens, Sam Gibbs, did not respond to our email.

Local Conservative MP Andrew Jones, who has commented on other controversial local issues in recent years such as the closure of the Harrogate Post Office and the rebranding of Stray FM, neither of which directly involved Harrogate Borough Council, has refused to make any public comment on the application.

A plot of land at Wetherby Road has been recommended to be exchanged for grass verges on Otley Road and designated as Stray land.

Harrogate Borough Council carried out a 12-week consultation over three plots of land to replace the verges, which will be removed for a new cycle route.

A majority of those who responded backed the council’s preferred option to designate land on Wetherby Road next to the war memorial as Stray land in exchange.

As part of the Stray Act, a suitable plot of land must be offered in exchange. It follows lengthy discussions between the council and the Duchy of Lancaster over land to designate to the Stray.

The responses to the consultation are due to go before the General Purposes Committee this week. Councillors will be asked to recommend that the authority’s cabinet approves the land proposals.

In total, the authority received 443 responses to its consultation.

Read more

• The agony of getting a single cycle route built in Harrogate
• New walking and cycling routes to wellbeing in Ripon

Of that number, 214 respondents (49%) strongly agreed with the proposal to exchange the Otley Road verges to one of the three options outlined by the council.

However, 161 (36%) strongly disagreed with the plan.

Some agreed with the options, but felt the proposal “should be put back to residents once a decision has been made”. Others said they supported the move “as long as there is still enough pavement to walk down with a pushchair”.

As part of the exchange, the council outlined three plots of land for the exchange:

• Wetherby Road land next to the war memorial (preferred option)
• St James Drive verges
• Arthurs Avenue verges

The area of land outlined in Harrogate Borough Council documents earmarked to be exchanged as part of the Otley Road cycle route.

In the responses, 246 (81%) agreed with the council’s preferred option of land at Wetherby Road next to the war memorial.

Those who agreed with the Wetherby Road plot felt it was “the most logical reason to form a continuous community resources” and “seems already part of the Stray”.

However, 14 agreed with the second option of verges at St James Drive and 45 supported the verges at Arthurs Avenue.

Some disagreed with the options outlined and said they did not want the Otley Road verges removed. Others said “the Stray should not be disrupted for cyclists” and questioned the need for a cycle route.

Residents were also asked whether they agreed with the council’s plan to amend the Stray bylaws to permit cycling on the Otley Road route.

A total of 235 strongly agreed (54%), while 162 (36%) strongly disagreed.

Councillors on the committee have been recommended to submit the proposed bylaw change to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government.

It comes as North Yorkshire County Council looks to press ahead with the cycle route on the stretch of road between Harlow Moor Road and Beech Grove.

The project has already been delayed and the negotiations over the Stray land have been a further stumbling block for the second phase of the scheme.

A teenager from Harrogate is raising £3000 for the British Exploring Society so she can go on a three week expedition to the Canadian Yukon.

Ellie Bestington has a passion for the natural world and hopes to one day to find a career that helps protect it.

Not only will this trip push her out of her comfort zone, mentally and physically, Ellie will also be working side-by-side with experts.

The Canadian Yukon is a wild territory in northwest Canada. The 17 year old will be hiking up mountains, sleeping in a tent and digging her own toilet!

Ellie is hoping to get valuable experience from this educational trip and will be making media projects as she goes.

Read more:

• Harrogate disability charity thanks those helping to make Yorkshire’s countryside accessible to all.
• Two young men from Bilton set up a community Facebook group for area.

Ellie has to cover the costs of her flights and kit. The £3000 is money for the British Exploring Society to continue offering these trips for young people.

Ellie said:

“I wanted to push myself in a harsh environment, it’ll be good to see how I may be tested. I will be learning and helping experts understand more about the area. In the future I want to help find ways to manage climate change but I need to know how and why it’s happened first so I want to fully immerse myself.”

Ellie with her dad, Simon, enjoying one of their favourite hobbies together, walking.

To help raise the funds Ellie and her dad, Simon Bestington, will attempt the three Yorkshire Peaks in the summer wearing pink tutus. Ellie is determined to get to Canada and says her dad will do all he can to help her raise the money, even if it does mean a pink tutu is involved.

The British Exploring Society is a youth development charity which offers young people the opportunity to challenge themselves in new environments.

To support Ellie’s fundraiser, click here.

Strayside Sunday is our weekly political opinion column. It is written by Paul Baverstock, former Director of Communications for the Conservative Party. 

“Thousands have lived without love.  None without water.”

So said the great poet and York’s own W.H. Auden in his poem ‘First Things First.’

Water is elemental, an essential building block for life on earth.  The human body comprises up to 60% water and global water security is, in my view, one of the most under-reported threats faced by contemporary civilisation.  The World Health Organisation reports that 1 in 3 humans in the world today have no access to an improved water supply, which is to say they have no access to clean and drinkable water.  And at current rates of global climate change the United Nations predicts that 6 billion of us will face water scarcity by 2050.

All of this to inject some context and perspective into the debate raging in this parish between Harrogate Spring Water, the council and a coalition of locals and environmental campaigners over the future of Rotary Wood, a publicly accessible green oasis planted in 2005 by Harrogate residents.  French consumer goods and yogurt giant Danone (revenues €25 billion or thereabouts) has asked Harrogate Borough Council (revenues a great deal less) to consider an application to expand its Pinewoods spring water bottling plant, create a few new jobs and level some much cherished woodland.

On January 18^th Harrogate Borough Council published a report recommending conditional approval for Danone’s expansion plans; on the grounds that  Harrogate Spring Water is a ‘global brand’ and a ‘strategic employer.’  This in the face of 328 planning objections (only 28 in support) and a weekly Friday protest at the town hall by local primary school teacher Sarah Gibbs, dressed like a tree for the occasion.  It should be noted that not only do the council already benefit from an annual ground rent of £13,000 – they also own the land on which the bottling plant sits – and therefore benefit from what is known as a ‘turnover rent’ (a share of turnover), cannily negotiated when the plant first opened.

I have some sympathy with the council’s dilemma.  Harrogate Spring Water is globally known; the company promote our town’s name from Tokyo to Toronto.  Indeed, to his astonishment, a good friend of mine was once served Harrogate Spring Water at a restaurant in Moscow.  Spasiba!  The council is in a tough spot; the global (let alone local) economy is on its knees and their books are short close to £5m as a result of Covid-19.  Apparently the council won’t (or can’t) reveal the full extent of what we stand to gain from our share of any increased turnover resulting from the expansion.

As regular readers of this column will know, I don’t believe, as a matter of principle, that commercial dealings between government and business should be kept private in any circumstances.  Transparency means accountability.  In this case if we knew how much the council stood to gain financially from Harrogate Spring Water’s expansion then we could take a more informed and nuanced view of whether or not to lend our support.  As it stands all we know is that we must lose a significant slice of nature and public access to it for a meagre 12 new jobs.  I’m not convinced it’s worth the sacrifice, even with Danone’s Section 106 agreement requiring them to plant replacement trees and promote biodiversity on another site.

I am convinced however that, in a world where so many don’t have access to clean drinking water, it is the height of wasteful and selfish consumerism to drink bottled spring water when we in the developed world have a perfectly good alternative from the tap.  I’m convinced too that the production of even one more single-use plastic bottle, recyclable or not, is one too many.  Is my own conscience clean in this matter?  Of course not: Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us sinners now etc.  Indeed, only if all those who oppose the expansion at Pinewoods so vehemently, can look one another in the eye and say in truth that they don’t drink bottled water from plastic bottles, are they entitled to vent anger. As Auden says in ‘First Things First’:

“Misinformed and thoroughly fleeced by their guides,

And gentle hearts are extinct like Hegelian Bishops.”

I can’t let the week pass without mentioning the inauguration of President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr, which I watched with a mixture of relief and wonder on Wednesday.  I found the ceremony deeply moving; for me it represented a return to the United States in which I spent 11 of my most formative years – idealistic, international, aspirational.  Neither Lincoln nor JFK in his rhetorical skills, Biden’s speech was nonetheless gripping.  I thought its best passage was “Through civil war, the Great Depression, world war, 9/11, through struggle, sacrifices and setbacks, our better angels have always prevailed. In each of these moments, enough of us — ENOUGH OF US — have come together to carry all of us forward, and we can do that now,”

On his first day in office Biden signed Executive Orders that returned the US to the Paris Climate Change Agreement (in time for the COP21 conference in Glasgow at the end of November) and to the World Health Organisation.  Thank goodness.  Globally, in the United States and here at home in Harrogate, if we are to slow and reverse global warming and its awful effects – melting ice caps, famine and, yes, drought – it will take enough of us to come together and act for the common good.  The number of people on the planet without access to safe drinking water or indeed any water at all grows every day.  For the people of Harrogate, water, tap or bottled spring, is not a matter of life and death.  For 2.2 billion people around the world it is.  We should remember that when we make decisions in the narrow and parochial economic interest, rather than in the global interests of the environment.

That’s my Strayside Sunday.

Read More:

• Harrogate Spring Water welcomes recommendation to approve expansion plan,
• How Harrogate council benefits from Harrogate Spring Water plant

Do you have a view on this column or is there a political issue you’d like Paul to write about? Get in touch on paul@thestrayferret.co.uk

A Harrogate man is preparing to take on a 300-mile cycling challenge in memory of his aunt, a well-known national radio broadcaster.

Simon Gregory will cycle from Harrogate’s Sir Robert Ogden Macmillan Centre to the Southampton hospital where his aunt, the Rev Ruth Scott, was treated for lymphoma.

He plans to complete the 288-mile route in just 24 hours in June, which will mean cycling through the night on his own. Despite the scale of his challenge, Simon is a relatively new cyclist. He said:

“I got into cycling around the time Ruth died and when the UCI cycling was coming to Harrogate. A client entered me for the sportive and I raised £2,000 for Leeds Cares.

“From there, I realised the physical benefits and mental health benefits of cycling, which really helped me with my grief.”

Simon continued to ride and, having raised £2,000, began to wonder what he could do to raise even more for cancer charities.

One of several family members to go through cancer treatment, his aunt was diagnosed with a rare form of lymphoma which did not respond to normal treatments – though some long-shot options taken by her doctors did give better results. Throughout her treatment, Ruth and her family were supported by Macmillan.

Pause for Thought

Until shortly before her death in early 2019, Ruth was known as one of the voices of Pause for Thought on the BBC Radio 2 breakfast show, first with Sir Terry Wogan and then with Chris Evans. However, Simon said her appearances were just one of the remarkable things in her life.

“She was a priest, and before that she was a clown in a circus. The first service she did after she was ordained involved a bit of fire eating.

“She never said no to a challenge and she spent a lot of time in the Middle East and North Africa, to try to increase understanding between Christian and Muslim communities there.”

Read more:

• Knaresborough museum project launches £35,000 crowdfunder
• Harrogate disability charity celebrates Yorkshire countryside

Ruth herself once cycled from Rome to Jerusalem, giving Simon even more inspiration for his challenge. He began training last year and has stepped up his mileage in recent weeks.

At the same time, he is juggling home-schooling for his two primary age children, and running specialist recruitment business GPS Return with his wife, Miranda.

“They’ve been incredibly supportive. These last couple of weekends, the snow has interrupted training but Miranda has still been encouraging me to go.

“For some of the rides, I’ve been out for 10 or 11 hours. Last year, they jumped in the car and had a day on the beach at Saltburn. I cycled up and met them there for 20 minutes then set off home again.”

The current lockdown restrictions mean Simon is staying closer to home: his next 100-mile training ride will be completed in laps starting from his Harrogate home.

Although he told his wider family last year about the challenge he was taking on, Simon has only just revealed it to friends. Now, he’s hoping to get as close to his £10,000 fundraising target as possible before he starts the challenge in mid-June.

To donate to Simon’s challenge, click here, or follow his progress on Instagram at @ruthscott24hr.

Tucked away on a residential street just off the Stray, this Harrogate cafe has become a lifeline for the local community and nearby hospital staff.

Simon Somerville-Frost has the bright smile and bubbly personality that draws people into No 43 Brew Bar, on St Winifred’s Avenue.

While the cafe cannot be the hub it wants to be right now, owner Simon and manager Becky Gilmour have made a difference for many by simply staying open.

Read more:

• Bespoke Harrogate jeweller is a ‘hidden gem’
• Hidden gem: Harrogate traditional bakery on the rise

No 43 Brew Bar opened in May 2018 after Simon realised that, after nearly a decade of living in the Saints area of Harrogate, he didn’t know any of his neighbours.

Wanting to set that right, he took on a shop unit opposite his home and soon expanded next door.

Some tried to dissuade Simon from opening a cafe outside the town centre but he was confident that it could become the heart of the local community.

It serves a range of tray bakes, coffees, teas, milkshakes and hot chocolates that can normally bring in people from not only Harrogate, but also Leeds and Bradford.

In reaction to the third national lockdown, Simon is also taking part of the business online, launching a new delivery box of its sweet treats called Brew Bar Bakes.

Simon told the Stray Ferret;

“We knew that within two or three months we had something unique as a business. It was clear to our customers that we were not just in it for the money.

“The cafe has always been a place for people to stay as long as they like and meet new people. Yes, the coffee needs to be very good, but it’s about the experience as well.

“During the first lockdown we really shone. We know our customers who lived alone so we were able to contact them, ask if they were OK, do some shopping for them.”

Not only do people visit No 43 Brew Bar on their walks – and yes dogs are allowed – but it has also been an escape for hospital staff over the last couple of years.

The cafe offers a 10% NHS discount and, drawing on his previous experience of working in the hospital, Simon knows some of the pressures the hospital staff are facing and how to put them at ease.

This is part of the Stray Ferret’s ‘hidden gem’ series, highlighting small, independent businesses. They need to be tucked away but growing in popularity with an eye-catching and unique product or approach. Send us an email with your nominations.

A teaching assistant from Harrogate is releasing an original song in two weeks and hopes he will get a record contract.

Sam McKenzie, is a special needs teaching assistant at Rossett School with dreams of succeeding in music. His first single is called Souls Collide and will be released on February 2.

The 22 year old decided to pursue his talent four years ago after joining local dramatic society, Harrogate Phoenix Players. He found that he loved to sing and perform and began working on his voice.

After a few years of recording covers and posting them to Youtube his parents paid for him to have a recording session in Wetherby for his birthday. From that session the producer offered to help him record three singles under his record company, EBA records.

He said he wants to show his students that if you have a dream it can be achieved with hard work.

Mr McKenzie’s producer has set him a target of 500 downloads across his three singles with the prize being a record contract.

He says the song will resonate with people who may be missing loved ones during the pandemic.

Mr McKenzie has been overwhelmed by the support of his friends and family, who are yet to hear the full song. He hopes his music will encourage people “to stop and think”.

He added:

“I’ve always loved singing but when my record producer said I had talent it meant so much.

“This is the first project that I’ve been really proud of and I hope everyone loves the song.”

Read more:

• Harrogate radio station finds new home in the centre of the town.
• Harrogate photographers awarded for their pictures of the town in snow.

The money raised from the downloads of his first single will be donated to two local causes. Half will go to Rossett School’s SEND department and the other to Harrogate Phoenix Players.

Mr McKenzie said both causes have supported him throughout his musical journey and pushed him to keep going.

His two further singles are yet to be recorded, Mr McKenzie says he will be back in the recording studio as soon as restrictions allow.

To hear a preview of the single, you can find Sam’s Youtube channel here.

A radio station in Harrogate has found a new home thanks to a partnership with a local business.

HG1 Radio has set up a studio in Doors Direct’s showroom on Claro Road, ready to welcome its team when covid restrictions allow.

Once the studios have been fully commissioned and tested, the presenters will be able to host their shows ‘live’ from the new base.  Managing director Dave Parker said:

“As soon as we are able to do so, we will be operating very much on an ‘open house’ basis for other local businesses and community groups to pay us a visit to see how everything works and to meet the team behind the station.

“It is frustrating that we can’t hold a launch event open day at the moment – but rest-assured the invites will be going out just as soon as it is safe and sensible to do so.”

Read More:

• Harrogate district to get new local radio station
• Harrogate residents wont have to travel to York for vaccine says health bosses

HG1 Radio has been on the air since July 2020, with its presenters currently working from home studios. It broadcasts online and via apps and media players, but is hoping to move onto DAB in the future.

Doors Direct, meanwhile, has been based on Claro Road for 21 of its 40 years in business. Owner Sean Clarke said he was looking forward to allowing customers to see the new studio, which includes some of the company’s products in its construction. He added:

“It is really exciting to have a radio station based within our business. It adds a whole new dimension to everything – and I’m looking forward to being able to show it off to customers and other businesses.”

A Harrogate man, who set up a charity to honour his son who took his life, held an event today to encourage businesses to improve workplace wellbeing.

Steve Phillip founded The Jordan Legacy to improve people’s wellbeing and the support available to them.

Mr Phillip and other family members hope the charity will provide support for people in their darkest times.

Jordan was 34 when he took his life in December 2019. Since then, his family, friends and partner have been determined to remember him and “live by his values”.

Mr Phillip described his son as “very considerate, a lot of fun and always the first there if you had a problem”. He said he knew he wanted to do more to help others.

Jordan Phillip

Today, the charity held an event to promote the #HopeForLifeUK Day it plans to hold on December 4 this year.

That date will be the second anniversary of Jordan’s death and the aim is to bring people together to discuss suicide prevention.

The charity works with businesses to encourage workplace wellbeing and mental health training and to ensure they have people and facilities in place to support staff.

It also works to bring community organisations together to discuss suicide openly and plan how it can be prevented.

Those attending today’s online event were asked to make a contribution; this may be to read a book on mental health, train as a mental health first-aider or fundraise for the charity. Whatever it is, the charity asks it be promoted using the #HopeForLifeUK Day. Mr Phillip said:

“Today is all about getting businesses, people and organisations involved to discuss suicide prevention and to put practical action in place to help people with their mental health.”

Read more:

• Harrogate baby loss charity offers support so families don’t feel “alone”.
• Harrogate disability charity thanks national charity for making Yorkshire’s countryside accessible to all.

Mr Phillip began working for the charity full-time eight weeks ago after previously being employed as a social media and LinkedIn consultant. He was also the vice president of Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce until 2016.

Mr Phillip said lockdown is having a huge impact on people’s wellbeing and he hopes to continue promoting the charity and the work it does to ensure people feel supported.

The charity’s website also has a number of resources available for people.

The history of Harrogate Borough Council and Harrogate Spring Water is intertwined — the more money the site makes the more it has to pay to the council.

This is because as well as paying £13,000 a year in ground rent to the council, which owns the land, the company also has to pay a percentage of the site’s annual turnover to the council.

When asked by the Pinewoods Conservation Group charity in a freedom of information request, the council refused to disclose details of this turnover-related revenue, citing “confidentiality obligations” set out when the deal was first drawn up.

When councillors on the planning committee meet next week to decide if they approve the plant’s expansion plans, they will be weighing up the value of potentially more income to taxpayers in the district against what many local residents believe is an environmentally destructive proposal.

The plant’s history

Water has been bottled in Harrogate for centuries but in the early 1990s Harrogate Spa Water, as the company was previously known, was selling just 1,000 bottles of water a year.

The company’s fortunes changed in the late 1990s when HBC, run then by the Liberal Democrats, identified an opportunity to explore water resources at the current site on Harlow Moor Road.

It was a hugely controversial decision at the time but the bottling plant was granted planning permission with the land leased to the privately-owned water company with the council taking a percentage of the turnover.

Jane Blayney was a Liberal Democrat councillor for the Duchy Ward at the time and told the Stray Ferret she lost her seat in 2002 due to her then-support of the bottling plant. She said the local Conservative group was strongly against the plant being built, which changed once they gained control of the council in 2003.

By 2019 Harrogate Spring Water had a turnover of £22m selling Harrogate water as far afield as Tokyo and Toronto.

Read more:

• TV presenter criticises Harrogate Spring Water’s Pinewoods plans

• Harrogate Spring Water’s Pinewoods plans set for approval

The local economy

The council report published last week describes Harrogate Spring Water, which was bought out by French multinational Danone in 2020, as a ‘global brand’ and ‘strategic employer’ that makes a significant contribution to the local economy.

Yet there was no specific mention of the turnover-related revenue and how it benefits the council.

Like other councils across the country, Harrogate Borough Council has faced significant financial challenges in recent years due to government cuts and now the coronavirus pandemic.

Covid is set to cost the council £5.9m and the council recently proposed a £5 increase in council tax as well as £1.14 million in spending cuts to help balance the books.

It means that any extra revenue received would be greatly received and could be used to help pay for services.

Pinewoods Conservation Group published a council document from 2016 that praises the company for its positive financial impact on the town:

“The positive impact of Harrogate Spring Water on the marketing of Harrogate as a ‘quality’ spa town is only set to increase as a result of the companies’ expanding international customer base, their targeted growth of water sales within key transport industries (trains, planes, airports etc) and their pursuit of ‘appropriate’ brand sponsorship opportunities’.”

Harrogate Borough Council’s planning committee will meet on Tuesday to consider Danone’s proposals.

The council downplayed any potential conflict of interest in a statement released to the Stray Ferret:

“Decisions taken by any local planning authority are separate and distinct from decisions taken by a local authority as land owner.”