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11
Oct
Campaigners call out Danone's 'misleading' biodiversity claims
Green Party councillors and campaigners have cried foul, after French multinational Danone said its proposed expansion of the Harrogate Spring Water bottling plant would result in a biodiversity net gain.
The claim was made in a letter sent to Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Tom Gordon by Jack Carnell, head of public affairs for Danone UK.
Mr Gordon had written to Danone to share a constituent’s concerns about the proposed development on Harlow Moor Road. In his reply, Mr Carnell said the expansion was necessary because:
As a small local business, running multiple sites would result in fragmentation of resources and increased complexity beyond the resources of the company.
Danone, which incorporates brand names including Activia, Aptamil, Alpro and Evian, is one of the world’s largest food companies, with sales of €27.4 billion across more than 120 countries in 2024.
Rotary Wood.
Mr Carnell’s letter goes on to say that the company has designed the extension “so it sits more naturally in the landscape”, has acquired new land to create a two-acre community woodland to replace Rotary Wood – which would be destroyed by the development – and has committed to a 10% biodiversity net gain.
It adds:
Taken together, these steps will protect the environment.
But a press release issued on behalf of campaigners and all four Green representatives on North Yorkshire Council pointed out that Danone’s own documents on North Yorkshire Council’s planning portal – as well as the council ecologist’s report published on September 19 – paint a different picture.
Cllr Arnold Warneken said:
I'm deeply concerned that Danone has written to our MP with what appears to be misleading information before a planning application is considered.
Cllrs Mike Schofield and Arnold Warneken.
The campaigners and councillors said that the company’s aim to achieve “no net loss” of biodiversity was “merely balancing out”, rather than adding value.
Danone has said it would be helped to achieve this by buying biodiversity credits – a way of paying for habitat to be created elsewhere.
But the press release pointed out:
Defra [Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs] itself describes these credits as ‘a last-resort way of acquiring biodiversity units needed to achieve BNG [biodiversity net gain]’.
The campaigners and councillors also pointed out that the woodland mentioned in Mr Carnell’s letter would belong to Danone, not the community, with public access and tree protections as yet unknown, as no draft Section 106 agreement will be available before the application is heard.
Cllr Mike Schofield added:
I cannot believe that it is considered appropriate for the committee to decide when there is no draft Section 106 agreement available. We cannot do this on trust – it must be considered on all, not just some, of the facts.
Sarah Gibbs of the Save Rotary Wood campaign.
One of the people behind the press release is Sarah Gibbs of Save Rotary Wood, the group set up in 2019 to protect a part of the Pinewoods was which planted by local schoolchildren 20 years ago, but which would be destroyed by the bottling plant extension.
She said:
I hope our council prioritise community and environment over profit, especially as the expansion can be located elsewhere and need not be in our well-loved woodland – which is a designated Asset of Community Value.
Harrogate Spring Water first applied to expand its bottling plant in 2016. Its latest application has attracted 1,085 public comments, more than 98% of them objecting to the proposed development.
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