North Yorkshire Council‘s tree expert has said he is “not in a position to support” Harrogate Spring Water‘s bid to expand into woodland alongside its headquarters.
Arboricultural officer Alan Gilleard raised a series of concerns in his response to the consultation on the company’s planning application.
Mr Gilleard said “normally an application includes a tree survey though I cannot find one”. He added he could also not find any evidence detailing the species to be removed.
He raised several other issues that required further information before concluding:
“Reading through the documentation we seem to be light on detail and some way off a position where we could support. At the moment I am not in a position to support.”
The company, which is part of French-owned multi-national Danone, wants to fell trees in a section of the Pinewoods known as Rotary Wood to make space for a new building. It has agreed to plant 1,500 saplings to create a community woodland as mitigation for the loss of trees.
Rotary Wood in the Pinewoods
The public consultation was due to end on Sunday (March 10) but has been extended following a request from Pinewoods Conservation Group, which does not feel it has sufficient information to give its view. Representatives from Harrogate Spring Water are due to attend the group’s annual general meeting on Wednesday, March 20.
So far the consultation has attracted 590 objections and six expressions of support.
Concerns about ‘large scale industrial’ building
In another blow for the company, Helen Golightly, the council’s principal landscape architect, has said the “planting details are incomplete for the stage of the proposals” and requested further details.
Ms Golightly said it was “essential” for Harrogate Spring Water to produce a landscape visual appraisal that “should account for the loss of woodland and the consequences of this on both visual amenity and the character of the area”.
She said there needed to be “a rudimentary tree survey” and raised concerns about the latest designs for the proposed new building. which she described as a “very large scale industrial building”. She said:
“The reserved matters application shows a building which is much more monolithic than the outline proposal which had a series of components which helped to provide some relief along elevations and incorporated areas of glazing along the north elevation.
“There was also a suggestion of a green roof which now appears to have been removed from the proposals.”
Harrogate Spring Water has pledged to replace any trees lost on a 3:1 ratio. It has said the scheme will create 50 jobs plus 20 more during construction.
Richard Hall, managing director at Harrogate Spring Water, previously said the new community woodland “will be fully accessible to the public and we hope will become a valued resource for the local community for many years to come”.
Harrogate Spring Water received outline planning permission for the scheme in 2017, which remains valid. The current reserved matters stage deals with its appearance, size and landscaping. Councillors rejected a previous reserved matters application in 2021,
You can view planning documents and comment on the application by visiting the council’s planning portal here and typing in reference number 20/01539/REMMAJ where it says ‘enter a keyword’.
Read more:
- Harrogate Spring Water submits controversial expansion plans
- Harrogate Spring Water campaigners step-up plans to save trees
