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09
Apr
Harrogate Spring Water set to win 10-year expansion battle
Harrogate Spring Water could finally be given the go-ahead to fell 500 trees to expand its bottling factory this month.
North Yorkshire Council planning officer John Worthington has recommended councillors approve the scheme at a meeting on Friday next week (April 17).
Harrogate Spring Water, which is part of French multinational Danone, says the project would create 50 jobs and pump £17 million a year into the northern economy.
The company has also pledged to plant 3,000 trees to compensate for the loss of the 500 in Rotary Wood.
But it has faced huge public opposition.
The company’s latest planning application has received 1,076 objections and only 12 expressions of support. That means 98.78% oppose it.
Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Tom Gordon accused the company of being more interested in making money than caring about the town.
Now the matter is due to be determined by members of the council’s Harrogate and Knaresborough area planning committee.
Campaigners at the planning meeting in October 2025.
In his report to the six-person committee, Mr Worthington recommends they approve the plans subject to nine conditions.
Councillors could reject the scheme or defer it, as they did in October last year. But if they go against the planning officer’s recommendation again it could lead to Harrogate Spring Water launching a potentially costly legal challenge to the government’s Planning Inspectorate.
Mr Worthington said the principle of development was established in 2017 when the company received outline planning permission and the current reserved matters application can only deal with access, appearance, landscaping, layout and scale
Officers consider the submitted details are acceptable or can be made acceptable by the proposed planning conditions and the signing of the Section 106 agreement.
Harrogate Spring Water's headquarters on Harlow Moor Road.
A Section 106 document is a legal agreement that details what measures developers must take to compensate for the impact of their schemes.
Harrogate Spring Water first submitted plans to expand in December 2016 when it was still a family-owned company.
After receiving outline permission in 2017, its subsequent reserved matters application was rejected in 2021 following a campaign fronted by TV star Julia Bradbury.
Harrogate Spring Water’s revised plans were deferred by the planning committee in October last year because they wanted clarity on the contents of the Section 106 agreement and the ecological strategy.
Mr Worthington said those issues have now been resolved and the scheme should go ahead.
Hundreds of campaigners attended October’s planning committee meeting when the issue was last on the agenda.
The decision to only give eight days’ notice of the next meeting is likely to be questioned by campaigners, who will want to rally support ahead of next week’s meeting.
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