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17
Apr
Campaigner hailed hero of Rotary Wood after leading seven-year fight
Nobody has done more to oppose Harrogate Spring Water’s plans to fell 500 trees in Rotary Wood than Sarah Gibbs, who has dedicated seven years to the cause.
From standing outside the council’s headquarters in pouring rain dressed as a tree, to organising meetings and handing out leaflets at public events, she has been the heartbeat of the Save Rotary Wood campaign.
Ms Gibbs received the biggest cheer of the day for her speech in front of North Yorkshire Council’s Harrogate and Knaresborough planning committee in which she berated the ecological mitigations put forward by the company and the council for accepting them.
“We are being told to follow a planning procedure by people who have ignored planning processes from day one,” she said.
Council planning officer John Worthington recommended councillors approve the scheme, which would have allowed Harrogate Spring Water to fell the trees to expand its bottling plant, but they rejected his advice.
Campaigner Sarah Gibbs speaking after the refusal.
Afterwards people rushed to congratulate Ms Gibbs and hail her the hero of the hour, and she was quickly whisked off for TV interviews.
She said she was “thrilled and overjoyed” by the decision, but knows the battle is unlikely to be over:
Our beautiful asset of community value woodland Rotary Wood is safe again for now, though this will likely go to appeal.
We need to keep up the pressure. We have so much celebrity support and hope that those amazing people will stand with us and keep the pressure on. It’s ludicrous to think that a multi-billion dollar global corporation can’t even get the original application correct, let alone correct surveys done.
This is seven years’ hard work campaigning with so many amazing people without which I doubt we would be here today. This decision sends an important message: people power works, your voice matters, to all who planted those woods including children now with their own children-your efforts towards a more sustainable future will not be uprooted, your efforts did and do matter.
Sarah Gibbs used smoke to highlight her greenwash claims at the October 2025 meeting.
Ms Gibbs sat next to Harrogate Spring Water managing director Richard Hall during the meeting at the Civic Centre.
Mr Hall declined to comment immediately after the outcome but Harrogate Spring Water, which is owned by French multinational Danone, issued a statement by him minutes later, which you can read here.
Sarah Gibbs
Cllr Michael Schofield, the Green Party councillor whose division includes Harrogate Spring Water’s Harlow Moor Road site, said afterwards residents raised legitimate concerns on issues such as landscaping, drainage, access and the scale of the scheme. “Crucially too many of those issues remain unresolved,” he said.
He pledged to continue to work to ensure any future proposals fully demonstrate how they will protect Harrogate’s environment, character and quality of life.
Wherever the planning application goes next, one thing is certain — Sarah Gibbs will be at the heart of it.
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