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16
Oct
Boost for Harrogate Spring Water’s expansion plans
Harrogate Spring Water has received a significant boost in its bid to expand its bottling plant.
The company, which is owned by French multi-national Danone, wants to fell about 500 trees alongside its headquarters on Harlow Moor Road in Harrogate to make space for the expansion.
Its plans have encountered fierce opposition from local people and even TV star Julia Bradbury, who are upset about the loss of trees planted by schoolchildren to combat climate change so more plastic bottles can be manufactured.
The Rotary Club of Harrogate organised the tree-planting in 2005 in a section of the Pinewoods now known as Rotary Wood.
But the charity, which is part of a global rotary movement to improve local places, has now said it will not object to Harrogate Spring Water’s planning application.
The expansion plans
A new planning statement by engineering firm Stantec on behalf of Harrogate Spring Water says the rotary club, West and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce and the council’s economic development department all now supported the scheme.
The statement is one of numerous documents uploaded on to North Yorkshire Council’s planning portal before councillors decide whether to approve Harrogate Spring Water’s planning application.
The statement, which was written by engineering firm Stantec, said the rotary club had indicated it supported the scheme provided an agreement was in place to secure compensatory woodland along with interconnecting footpaths and the retention of existing rights of way.
The Stray Ferret asked the rotary club about its position.
Past president David Hayes said:
The position of the Rotary Club of Harrogate has always been that we would prefer Rotary Wood to be left alone but given that this is unlikely to happen any loss of trees and community amenities should be kept to the minimum possible and adequately mitigated by replacement planting and landscaping.
Rotary Club of Harrogate has engaged in several consultations with Harrogate Spring Water and we believe their latest amended proposals alleviate our previous concerns regarding the loss of trees and loss of public access to part of Rotary Wood. We believe that Harrogate Spring Water has gone above and beyond in ensuring that any loss of trees and amenity for the public will be adequately compensated by their acquisition of additional land for new tree planting and construction of interconnecting footpaths, and above all by entering into a Section 106 agreement to safeguard the future use of the additional land.
If the development is implemented as planned and promised it will be a showcase for future developments of a similar nature. On this basis we have agreed with Harrogate Spring Water that we will not oppose the application.
Extinction Rebellion activists protested against the cutting down of Rotary Wood.
But Mr Hayes added: “This shows that we do not oppose the application. This is not the same as supporting it and should not have been included under that heading.”
Community woodland
Harrogate Spring Water received outline planning permission for the expansion in 2017, which means the principle of development has been established.
Its current reserved matters application deals with appearance, size and landscaping and needs to be approved by councillors before the scheme can proceed.
Councillors rejected a previous reserved matters application in 2021 after a campaign fronted by TV star Julia Bradbury.
Harrogate Spring Water, which has pledged to create a new community woodland and replace any trees lost on a 3:1 ratio, has said the scheme will create 50 jobs plus 20 more during construction.
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