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17
Apr
Harrogate Spring Water expansion will happen — it’s just a matter of details, says councillor
One of the six councillors who will adjudicate on Harrogate Spring Water’s expansion plans today (April 17) has said the development will happen — it’s just a matter of finalising the details.
North Yorkshire Council’s Harrogate and Knaresborough planning committee will meet at 2pm to decide whether the scheme can proceed.
Councillor Paul Haslam, who sits on the committee, took the unusual step of releasing a statement yesterday about the meeting.
More than 1,000 people, including Harrogate and Knaresborough Liberal Democrat MP Tom Gordon, have called for the scheme to be rejected and demonstrations are expected before the meeting.
But Cllr Haslam, an Independent who represents Bilton and Nidd Gorge, pointed out that outline planning permission was granted in 2017, which established the principle of development.
He added:
So today is about getting the detail right, not reopening the original decision.
What we are considering now is not whether the development should happen, but how it is carried out — specifically the detailed design: the access, layout, scale, appearance and landscaping.
I fully recognise that many residents continue to have strong views about the development itself — particularly around environment, traffic and the wider impact on Pinewoods. Those concerns are understood and have been raised throughout the process.
However, councillors also have a responsibility to act lawfully and fairly on behalf of everyone. That means focusing on the matters that are properly before us — ensuring that, if the development proceeds, it does so in the best possible way, with the strongest possible mitigation, design quality and protection for the surrounding area.
Councillors deferred a decision in October 2025 to get more details on the ecological safeguards and the Section 106 legal agreement that compensates the community for the loss of woodland.
If the scheme goes ahead, 500 trees in the Pinewoods at the back of Harrogate Spring Water’s headquarters on Harlow Moor Road will be destroyed to make space for the company’s factory to expand.
Harrogate Spring Water, which is part of French multinational Danone, says the project would create 50 jobs and inject £17 million a year into the northern economy.
It has also pledged to plant 3,000 trees to compensate for the loss of the 500 in Rotary Wood.
You can read about the key issues at today’s meeting here and follow today’s meeting on the Stray Ferret.
To read Cllr Haslam’s statement in full, click here.
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