Harrogate Spring Water’s bid to fell some 450 trees to expand its bottling plant is one of the most contentious planning applications of recent years.

A high profile campaign led by TV star Julia Bradbury saw the company’s plans rejected by Harrogate Borough Council in 2021.

Three-and-a-half years later, Harrogate Spring Water is on the verge of having amended plans go before North Yorkshire Council’s planning committee.

The main difference is that the new proposals include a publicly accessible woodland that would be planted with 1,460 trees, plus a separate tree-planting exercise with a local charity involving 1,500 specimens on another site, meaning the lost trees would be replaced on a ratio of about six to one.

Managing director Richard Hall said in an interview at the firm’s Harlow Moor Road headquarters this week the plans could come before the committee as soon as September.

Mr Hall said the company, which is owned by French multi-national Danone, had spent years engaging with the likes of Pinewoods Conservation Group and the Rotary Club of Harrogate, which planted the under-threat trees in a section of the Pinewoods known as Rotary Wood in the 1990s, Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce, West & North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, councillors and other stakeholders to finalise plans.

Various concerns were raised when Mr Hall and colleagues answered questions at Pinewoods Conservation Group’s annual general meeting in March, which he Stray Ferret attended. You can read about that meeting here.

In this week's update, Mr Hall said that contrary to some claims, the majority of the 1,460 trees that would be planted on nearby land in mitigation for the loss of trees in Rotary Wood would be between two and four metres in height, and not saplings.

They will be planted on land acquired from a local landowner, but that agreement will only go ahead if the planning application succeeds. This has raised concerns that Danone could use its newly acquired land to expand again.

We asked Mr Hall about that and other matters.

What is the timeframe for the application?

We have now talked to planning officers and relevant councillors and responded to some questions from the Pinewoods AGM. Once that is all clarified we will resubmit, there will then be a period of consultation and then most likely it will then go to planning committee. We don’t control that timing, but it looks most likely to be September.

What changes can people expect

It’s minor issues. For instance, there were some questions from the tree officer which we have responded to and we expect the officer to be happy.

Has Pinewoods Conservation Group indicated if it will support the application?

No, they haven’t.

How confident are you that the plans will be accepted by the council?

I can’t really speak in degrees of confidence, but we feel we have responded to all the questions that were raised. We think we are in a position where we have responded to the community and if we get approval we will move into the planning stage with the community and see how it would like the new woodland to be designed. 

How long would it take to build the bottling plant expansion?

A project like this can easily take 18 month to two years. The building itself wouldn’t take a long time but it takes quite a long time to first of all complete all the industrial planning.

Have you amended the plans for the building, which was criticised for its ‘industrial design’ by Harrogate Civic Society?

We haven’t changed the design itself. We think, as an industrial site, it is sympathetic to its surroundings. It’s not a corrugated box and we have made efforts to ensure the new design will be consistent with what you see when you come in here.

Why won’t it have a living roof, as suggested?

We did look into that but in the end the Danone quality standards didn’t allow us to have a green roof because of the risk of rodents and other wildlife living in the roof if there were plants in it. For a food factory, that breaches guidelines so it wasn’t possible in the end. 

There have been calls for Danone to gift the land it could acquire to the community to show it has no further expansion plans. Will it?

Our position on that hasn’t changed. We acquired the land to become an asset for the company. It was a completely acceptable and normal but commercial negotiation, not at agricultural land prices so it’s an asset to the company that we can’t gift to the community.

What would you say to those who don’t believe you won’t expand further?

Our ask to the community is to trust the company. We have made public statements very clearly saying it will be woodland, we have said it will involve the community, we have started to talk about the number of trees and how the community will be able to use the woodland and that it will be accessible. We believe that is a demonstration of what we are talking about.

Can you give a copper-bottom guarantee or legal assurance it won’t ever be sold?

There isn’t a legal assurance that it will never be sold. Of course, I can’t predict what will happen in 50 years but that is not the intention of the business. Harrogate Spring Water is not a big mass market brand. It is a niche brand. We want to expand a niche business slowly over time and that’s sufficient for us. We don’t see the future here as a big factory expanding.

Why won’t the company produce a biodiversity report?

We are working on a biodiversity net gain calculation. There isn’t a requirement for that but we have set a target of 10% biodiversity net gain and we are working towards that and intend to achieve it.

How has the company been doing this financial year?

The company has been doing well. The weather this year hasn’t been helping. It’s been very wet and because it’s a seasonal business there’s a slight dip compared to where we were hoping we’d be but we are progressing. Recently we have agreed a contract with Mitchells & Butlers, which owns lots of different pubs and restaurants such as All Bar One, Toby Carvery and Harvester. So we are winning new contracts and getting into new areas of business – Blackburn Rovers FC for example.

The new Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Tom Gordon has said he cannot support the plans in their current form. Have you spoken to him?

We have invited him to come to the site and he expressed an interest to come and have a conversation with us. We think bottled water is a product that is great for the country – it keeps people hydrated and is better than sugary drinks and alcohol. So we think we have a valuable business that is good for society and that’s something we’d like to talk to Tom Gordon about.

It doesn’t sound like there have been any major changes. What would you say to people who say the consultation has just been a box-ticking exercise?

I’d say we have been listening. As we said right from the beginning, we will listen and take action and that’s what we’ve done. We have started to develop a more constructive relationship with the local community. It’s all right to take time if we can demonstrate we are a business that is really wanting to be part of the community.