Harrogate Borough Council has said it would consider selling Rotary Wood to Harrogate Spring Water, as the company looks to expand its bottling plant on Harlow Moor Road.
The move was revealed in an email sent by Trevor Watson, the council’s director of economy and culture, to HSW in October 2021. It was obtained via a freedom of information request.
HSW leases the land where it is based, on Harlow Moor Road, from the council. The company pays the council ground rent of £13,000 a year plus turnover rent revenue, but this figure has never been publicly revealed.
The council is also the planning authority and in January last year councillors rejected a bid by HSW to expand its bottling plant into Rotary Wood.
The woodland was planted by the Rotary Club of Harrogate and local schoolchildren and is part of the council-owned Pinewoods.
In July 2021, Harrogate Spring Water said it would table new proposals to expand the bottling plant ‘within weeks’ but eight months on it has yet to do so.
Asset of Community Value
Pinewoods Conservation Group successfully registered the Pinewoods as an Asset of Community Value in 2015.
This means if the council decided to sell any of it, it must pause any sale for six months whilst it gives local community groups the chance to make an offer to buy it.
The email from the HSW employee, whose name is redacted, to Mr Watson reveals that representatives from HSW had a ‘helpful’ meeting with Conservative council leader Richard Cooper and deputy leader Graham Swift in September 2021. The ACV status of the woodland was discussed.
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In the email to Mr Watson, the HSW employee asked about the process for “releasing the land of this status”.
The email says as HSW decided to ‘do right by the town’ by not appealing last January’s refusal to grant planning permission, it asks the council to ‘lend your assistance’ around the ACV status of the wood, which it would like removed to speed up its planning application. It adds:
“A key element of the new application would be to try to expediate the process of releasing this land of its status, in order to avoid an unnecessarily protracted period of consultation and media scrutiny. I firmly believe this would be in the best interest of both parties.”
Open to offers
Mr Watson’s reply said that any sale of land with ACV status must follow due process but the authority would be open to offers.
Mr Watson added:
“The timing of all this therefore largely rests with HSW, in terms of how soon you wish to commence negotiations for the land and ultimately whether an in-principle agreement can be reached on potential disposal terms.”
He said informal discussions between the council and the business about buying the land took place “a number of years ago” but terms could not be reached.
Harrogate Spring Water’s head office on Harlow Moor Road in Harrogate.
Mr Watson said if a bid came in from HSW for the land, it would be subject to the usual six-month consultation period.
“We would therefore see the ball being in the HSW court in terms of formally approaching the council with a new, meaningful proposal for our consideration.
“If and when disposal terms are agreed in principle, the ACV process would then be formally triggered and we would carefully follow all the legal processes required, including public consultation as appropriate.”
Planning process ‘needs to be followed’
A Harrogate Spring Water spokesperson said:
“Harrogate Spring Water is evaluating its plans for the site and will communicate any update as and when that occurs. We are committed to working with the public and we will continue to keep people engaged and informed as part of the process”.
A Harrogate Borough Council spokeswoman said:
“This matter remains entirely in the hands of Harrogate Spring Water. We wrote to them back in Autumn 2021 setting out a factual response to questions that they asked us about our decision-making processes. We made very clear that there are distinct, statutory processes that we need to follow and that planning and land disposal processes are, quite rightly, dealt with as very separate matters. We have not had a response or any further discussions with the company on either the planning or land ownership situation”.
A spokesperson for Pinewoods Conservation Group said
“With each year that passes the Rotary Wood area of The Pinewoods becomes a more mature woodland with increasing bird and plant life, improving the biodiversity of the area and improving air quality.
“We are aware that Cllr Swift has been vocal in his support of this planned development but would be very concerned if any promises had been made to expedite any part of this complicated process and avoid full transparency and consultation. We also note that Cllr Cooper has recently been attending planning committee meeting and would hope he would now excuse himself from any future planning committee that considered these planning matters.
“However, we are somewhat comforted by comments from council officers restating the legal and planning processes that needs to be followed with respect to disposal of public land, and land that is protected as an ‘asset of community value’.
“Our lawyers will continue to monitor progress with interest.”
