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04
Dec
Town council votes to oppose Harrogate Spring Water expansion
Harrogate Spring Water’s plan to extend its bottling plant on Harlow Moor Road received a fresh blow last night when Harrogate Town Council voted unanimously to oppose it.
At the council’s last full meeting before Christmas, Cllr Graham Dixon (Lib Dem, Harlow) pointed out that the planning application had received more than 1,000 objections and said the council’s job was to reflect the views of the people of Harrogate.
A survey in October found that 86% of Harrogate residents disagree with the scheme.
Cllr Dixon said:
This is an issue that is not dividing Harrogate – it is uniting Harrogate – and it’s important that the council takes a view.
Rotary Wood in Harrogate.
The extension plan has been extremely contentious. It would entail building over part of Rotary Wood, a section of the Pinewoods that was planted 20 years ago with the help of local schoolchildren.
Campaigners against the scheme cite a loss of biodiversity and public amenity, and a lack of safeguards against further future development, as reasons why it should not go ahead.
Harrogate Spring Water says it would create jobs and provide a boost to the local economy with no lasting negative ecological impact.
The plan already has outline planning permission – in other words, consent in principle – but a reserved matters planning application, which goes into the fine detail of the extension, has yet to be decided upon by North Yorkshire Council, which deferred the matter in October pending further information over ecology and a section 106 legal agreement.
Cllr David Goodall (Reform UK, Bilton Woodfield) agreed with Cllr Dixon, saying:
The company says it will be good for the local economy, but I struggle to understand how you can assess the economic benefit if you don’t take into account what will be lost, which you can’t measure in pounds, shillings and pence.
What we can do as a town council is limited, but we should take a view on this. It’s time to put our hearts on our sleeves.
The final decision on the bottling plant extension rests with North Yorkshire Council.
Harrogate Town Council is one of about a dozen statutory consultees, which also include Natural England, the Environment Agency and the Health and Safety Executive.
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