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23
Feb
Councillors and MP call for Harrogate Spring Water decisions to be made in public
Local Green councillors and Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Tom Gordon have called for key decisions on Harrogate Spring Water's controversial expansion plans to be made publicly by the council's Planning Committee.
The demand comes after planning officers issued a screening opinion concluding that an Environmental Impact Assessment is not required for the site – a measure that campaigners had also been calling for.
Two Green Party councillors – Cllr Mike Schofield (Harlow and St George’s) and Cllr Arnold Warneken (Ouseburn) – have written to the North Yorkshire Council’s head of development management, Martin Grainger, and the chair of the planning committee, Cllr Chris Aldred, formally requesting that key remaining decisions in the case be determined by committee rather than under officers’ delegated powers.
Mr Gordon has issued a statement supporting the call-in request.
Cllr Schofield said:
This has been with officers long enough. Residents have made their feelings clear that this is the removal of a community asset that they love and use.
So much is at stake, and so many procedural flaws have come to light that it’s only fair and just to bring the remaining key decisions to the planning committee to decide whether the information provided is satisfactory and does actually do what the conditions in the outline permission were designed to do.
Background
Harrogate Spring Water, which is owned by French multinational Danone, wants to build an extension to its Harlow Moor Road bottling plant on part of Rotary Wood, which was planted 20 years ago by schoolchildren.
The company says the scheme will create jobs and boost the local economy, and claims it will compensate for the loss of trees by planting even more.
But campaigners object, citing environmental concerns and the loss of amenity, and say the economic boost will be felt largely by Danone, rather than by the local community.
Legal opinion divided
Outline planning permission for the scheme was granted in 2017, but the detailed application was deferred at committee in October, in part because no Environmental Impact Assessment had been carried out.
Campaigners argue that a remaining condition relating to ecological matters should be decided by councillors, as it concerns whether environmental information must be provided before or after the planning committee considers the application – and that committee members cannot make a meaningful decision without sufficient information on the scheme's environmental impact.
The Green councillors say the issue is particularly significant because legal opinion is divided. Lawyers advising campaigners argue the current approach is not lawful, while council lawyers maintain that it is.
They say that where professional legal interpretations differ, the decision becomes one of planning judgement, and should therefore be made by elected members in public, rather than by officers.
'Conflict of interest'
Tom Gordon MP supported the councillors' request, saying:
This is a controversial application with many issues, not least that North Yorkshire council receives an annual levy from Harrogate Spring Water’s revenue, and that same council is deciding whether they should extend their factory. That is a conflict of interest that warrants making decisions in a way that’s fully transparent.
Given the strength of opinion of Harrogate residents, I support this request for the decision-making process to be held in public.
'Living water system'
Campaigners state that outline permission was granted without ecological surveys such as tree and bat assessments, and say that although the current application was submitted in 2020, it remains undecided.
They also say that despite the felling of more than 500 trees, no tree survey has been submitted, and that although the site lies in an area known for natural springs, the application does not include a drainage plan or surveys assessing potential impacts on the local water system.
Cllr Warneken said:
A site with springs and wet woodland isn’t just ‘green space’ – it’s a living water system. Disturbing it without thorough investigation risks damaging something that can’t easily be restored or replaced, which is why these sites are often considered candidates for detailed environmental assessment.
We cannot ignore that this is one of the most controversial development proposals in Harrogate’s history, impacting on its heritage as a spa town, stripping us of our natural assets.
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