Pinewoods Conservation Group is to meet representatives from Harrogate Spring Water to discuss the company’s plans to expand its bottling plant.

The French-owned firm announced last month it will revert to its original 2017 planning application, which involves felling trees in a section of the Pinewoods called Rotary Wood.

However, the number of trees felled would be less than contained in plans rejected last year by Harrogate Borough Council.

Harrogate Spring Water’s new application will propose how the lost trees will be compensated for.

The meeting is set to take place within the next few weeks. It will be the first time the charity, which protects the council-owned woodland, has met the company since it announced it was pressing ahead with the expansion.

Online platform

The charity has used online polling platform Harrogate District Consensus to find out what is and isn’t acceptable to residents with the new planning application.

At the time of publication, over 420 people have given their thoughts on issues such as how many trees the company should replant and plastic pollution and biodiversity loss.

Neil Hind, chair of Pinewoods Conservation Group, said it would bring some of the most popular statements that people have submitted to the meeting in the hopes of presenting a consensus.

He said:

“We know this is a very emotive subject, so we need a way to gather some more scientific based views from our members, visitors to the Pinewoods and Harrogate residents. This system allows people to agree or disagree with statements but also add new statements to express their own feeling on the subject.

“We hope that this will form a consensus of views and even some new thinking on this issue. We would really encourage people to get involved and make their views known. These views will then be shared with the Harrogate Spring Water and Danone management when we meet and will also be used as part of our submission to the consultation process.”

Read more:

• Hot Seat: Harrogate Spring Water’s new boss faces old dilemma

• Harrogate Spring Water: New details about how council makes money from bottled water plant

Harrogate Spring Water’s new chief executive Richard Hall recently told the Stray Ferret the company would be “much more open” about its latest plans, which are yet to be submitted to Harrogate Borough Council.

A series of meetings with local stakeholder groups are planned and there will be an open consultation event next month.

A spokesperson for Harrogate Spring Water, whose headquarters is on Harlow Moor Road. said:

“We are starting our consultation process this month via meetings with community stakeholder groups prior to an open public consultation event which we plan to hold in July.

“We will announce details of this event shortly, but anyone who cannot come along can still have their say via a dedicated webpage at https://www.harrogatespring.com/facility-extension/”

Harrogate Spring Water unveils mindful drinking bar at Royal Ascot

Harrogate Spring Water has opened the first mindful drinking bar at Royal Ascot with celebrity guests.

The company teamed up with wellbeing advocate and former Love Islander Dr Alex George and much-loved bartender from First Dates Merlin Griffiths for the launch.

The reduced and no-alcohol bar was devised after a survey of 2,000 people showed 24% had cut down their alcohol intake post-covid.

The water brand has launched its Drinking Life In campaign with a dedicated platform encouraging people to make the most of their experiences. It also includes mindful drinking tips from Dr Alex George.

Richard Hall, managing director at Harrogate Spring Water, said:

“Our survey clearly shows how adults really are being more mindful about their alcohol intake post-lockdown as they now focus on creating memories from their experiences.

“With that in mind, it’s such a joy to bring people together to connect again at Royal Ascot as we encourage racegoers to make the most of their celebrations.”

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Harrogate wealth management firm acquired

Harrogate-based wealth manager Gore Browne Investment Management (GBIM) has entered into a deal with Hawksmoor Investment Management.

The merger means Hawksmoors is set to acquire 100% of GBIM. The amount offered has not been disclosed.

While Gore Browne and Hawksmoor will become a single enterprise, the Gore Browne name and offices will be maintained, and the business will continue to use Pershing as its custodian.

The GBIM firm has a reported funds under management of £520 million across its offices.

Chief executive of GBIM, Mark Awkwright, said:

“For some time the Gore Browne board and shareholders have been seeking a partner who was already operating in the private client sector, to invest in our business.

“We selected Hawksmoor as this was the best fit for our clients and our people. It has always been our creed, in an increasingly unapproachable investment world, to put clients first. We have known and respected the team at Hawksmoor for many years and feel confident that together we will continue to deliver an exceptionally high quality, personal service.”

Few local chief executives face a trickier task in the months ahead than the one confronting the new man in charge of Harrogate Spring Water.

Richard Hall has to convince a sceptical public and councillors that they should support plans to fell trees in the Pinewoods so the company can expand its factory and produce more plastic bottles.

Trees, plastic and a climate crisis are a volatile mix, as shown last year when more than 400 people objected to a larger expansion scheme put forward by the company that was ultimately rejected.

The campaign attracted national media coverage and a high profile champion in TV presenter Julia Bradbury.

Mr Hall hopes the outcome will be different this time and is keen to strike a conciliatory tone as the company prepares to consult on its revised plans before submitting a planning application.

He says:

“Expansion plans can often be challenged by local communities and that’s something that is not unusual per se, but we could have handled it better and we could have consulted better with the local community so there’s definitely a lesson to learn for us.

“We’ve got an opportunity to be much more open. There is an opportunity for people to come and talk to us, look at the plan and give us feedback.”

Richard Hall, at the company’s Harrogate factory.

Mr Hall is also keen to frame the debate in a wider context than trees versus plastic.

“It’s not really a question of how water is packaged — it’s a question of how food and other beverages are packaged. So if we are asked what are we doing to reduce the impact of packaging, I’d be very happy to respond to that because we are doing significant things.”

He mentions several environmental initiatives Harrogate Spring Water supports and says the main issue is recycling rates. Harrogate Spring Water’s bottles are made using 50% recycled plastic and glass and Mr Hall says this would increase if more recycled products were available.

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Water, he says, is “the healthiest beverage” and the company’s national reputation should be a source of local pride, not to mention the fact that expansion would create 30 jobs.

Packaging, he adds, is a separate debate. But he knows the argument will be tough.

“I accept there will be some discussion around it. It’s a hot topic. People are passionate about the climate. I just hope we get a balanced debate.”

New era

Mr Hall’s appointment marks a new era at Harrogate Spring Water, which can produce 36,000 bottles of 500 millilitre water per hour at its factory.

The company was bought two years ago by French multinational Danone but former managing director James Cain, who had been in charge for 15 years, continued to lead the business until Mr Hall arrived. Mr Cain is now a minority shareholder.

The takeover and expansion plans haven’t been the only issues to contend with lately.

Covid hit hard. According to Harrogate Spring Water’s latest annual accounts, gross profit for the year ending March 31, 2020, was £8.3m but crashed to £1.9m for the nine months to December 31, 2020 due to the closure of many places that sell bottled water, such as convenience stores, hotels, airports and train stations.

Mr Hall says business is now “recovering to pre-covid levels”.

Brexit, he says, impacted the company “a little bit” but nowhere near as much as covid. Inflation is a major concern now.

The company has stopped exporting water to Russia since the Ukraine war started but overseas sales account for only a fraction of business.

Last year the business withdrew its sponsorship of Yorkshire County Cricket Club amid the club’s racism row and has not renewed it, but it continues to be the official water of Royal Ascot.

Despite its national reputation, Mr Hall describes Harrogate Spring Water, which employs 78 staff, as a “small, local brand” compared with international brands like Volvic, and he doesn’t see that changing.

“We will look at expansion plans in the UK and Ireland. There’s lots of space to grow.”

Harrogate, he says, should be proud of its spa heritage.

“There are not many towns in the UK that can talk about their spa heritage. Harrogate is the top one. The water you find here is delicious.”

Danone all his life

Mr Hall, a keen runner, joined Danone in Tokyo a month after finishing university in Japan. He has remained with the company since. He is fluent in Japanese, where he lived for 25 years and has a Japanese wife.

As vice-president of Danone’s UK and Ireland business, his remit extends far beyond Harrogate Spring Water’s factory on Harlow Moor Road (pictured below).

Mr Hall lives in Oxford and expects to visit Harrogate twice a month.

His credentials are impeccable, having worked on other Danone water brands Evian and Volvic, as well as Yakult.

Being part of Danone, he says, brings “access to expertise and knowledge” but he constantly stresses the importance of the company retaining the local feel nurtured by the Cains. A new strategic plan is being created.

“The Cain family did a great job in building the brand. I want to look after it and grow it further. We are talking about a premium brand; we are not talking about a mass market brand.”

But how much the company grows will depend largely on whether its planning application to expand by two acres in the Pinewoods is successful.

It plans to revive a 2017 application that was granted outline permission, which means the principle of development is already established but the final details are not.

A banner protest this month.

Having outline permission will make the process easier but little is likely to be straightforward in such emotional terrain. Last year, protestor Sarah Gibbs stood outside the council offices dressed as a tree, and she has been back putting up banners around the town, saying there can be no mitigation for the loss of woodland.

Mr Hall reiterates he welcomes debate and that the company will listen. Would he talk to Julia Bradbury? He looks at his PR adviser who says he can’t see why not.

There is likely to be plenty of talking and listening before councillors decide whether the plant can be extended. Mr Hall will have to call on all his skill, expertise and years of experience if the company is to secure the outcome it wants.

Environmental campaigner Sarah Gibbs has revived her campaign to oppose the expansion of Harrogate Spring Water‘s bottling factory.

Ms Gibbs played a major role in the previous campaign against the company’s plans to fell trees in the Pinewoods to expand its site.

She stood outside Harrogate Borough Council during winter in a tree costume, urging the local authority to reject the scheme. The council, which received more than 400 objections, rejected the plans in January last year.

Now that the company has announced new plans, albeit on a smaller scale, Ms Gibbs has started campaigning again.

Last weekend she put up banners in the town centre and Valley Gardens for people to see during the jubilee celebrations. She is also considering protesting outside the council offices again.

She told the Stray Ferret she was “trying to do something rather than nothing” because she felt so passionately about the issue.

“I am trying to raise awareness because not everybody will be aware that this is on the agenda again.

“I would like to see our council take the climate emergency seriously.”

Pinewoods Conservation Group has said it is “encouraged” by Harrogate Spring Water’s decision to consult with people about its plans and and its commitment to “work with us and other key stakeholders to achieve a net biodiversity gain”.

Read more:

• Pinewoods tree protester vows to lobby council offices every week
• Harrogate Spring Water to submit new plans to expand bottling plant soon

Harrogate Spring Water said last month it planned to revert to its original 2017 plan to expand its bottling plant.

The move, which would result in the loss of two acres of woodland, would create 30 jobs. A planning application is expected in autumn after a period of public consultation.

Harrogate Spring Water’s offices on Harlow Moor Road.

Richard Hall, managing director at Harrogate Spring Water, said:

“The town of Harrogate and the local community are at the heart of our business. So it is important for us to ensure that, as we look to grow, create further job opportunities and continue to support the local and regional economy, we also listen to them.

“That’s why we are now encouraging people to engage with us on this process, to give us the benefit of their views and to help shape the future of the company.

“We have a shared interest in driving prosperity for the town and creating a sustainable future for a key business that takes the Harrogate name around the UK and the world, and we hope that this process will allow us to come to a resolution which addresses people’s concerns and the town’s aspirations.”

Harrogate Spring Water is to revert back to its original 2017 plan to expand its bottling plant — and will submit a new application soon that proposes how felled trees at Rotary Wood will be compensated for.

The company won outline planning permission to expand its premises on Harlow Moor Road by 5,500 sqm five years ago. It means the principle of development has been established but the finer details have not been agreed.

The approved 2017 plans involve the felling of some trees at Rotary Wood, a woodland behind its current site that was planted by The Rotary Club of Harrogate and local schoolchildren in the 2000s.

In January 2021 a high-profile reserved matters application that was 40% larger and looked to chop down more trees than had been agreed was turned down by Harrogate Borough Council‘s planning committee.

The application provoked a public backlash and generated a debate about how a large, successful businesses should operate in the era of climate change.

Compensation

To compensate for the loss of trees, the company offered to plant new ones, create scrubland and build a pond on private land behind RHS Harlow Carr.

But this was an offer that dismayed some councillors on the planning committee and local groups including Pinewoods Conservation Group.

Piers Forster, a professor of climate physics at the University of Leeds who lives in Harrogate published a co-authored report that said about five times more new woodland was needed to properly compensate for the loss of trees.

Read more:

• Harrogate Spring Water: New details about how council makes money from bottled water plant
• Harrogate council open to selling Rotary Wood to Harrogate Spring Water

Next steps

The company said in July 2021 that it was working on a brand new application and the old plan would be disregarded.

However, the company has now decided to go back to its original plan rather than going through the torturous process of starting from scratch.

But, as in 2021, it still will need councillors on the planning committee to approve a reserved matters application that deals with its appearance and crucially, how the destroyed trees at Rotary Wood will be compensated for.

The company is yet to publish exact details on how it will do this.

Consultation events

Harrogate Spring Water said in a statement that it is looking to achieve “net biodiversity gain” for the site, carry out a compensatory tree planting scheme and it will make the remaining part of Rotary Wood more accessible to the public.

A series of public consultation events will take place in June where people will get to have their say and shape the proposals.

The company said the plans would create 30 new jobs.

Richard Hall, managing director at Harrogate Spring Water, said:

“The town of Harrogate and the local community are at the heart of our business. So it is important for us to ensure that, as we look to grow, create further job opportunities and continue to support the local and regional economy, we also listen to them.

“That’s why we are now encouraging people to engage with us on this process, to give us the benefit of their views and to help shape the future of the company.

“We have a shared interest in driving prosperity for the town and creating a sustainable future for a key business that takes the Harrogate name around the UK and the world, and we hope that this process will allow us to come to a resolution which addresses people’s concerns and the town’s aspirations.”

A spokesperson for the Pinewoods Conversation Group said:

“Whilst we are pleased that the plans for the larger site have now been dropped we are disappointed that the company still plan to progress with the original development first proposed 5 years ago. Since then, the public’s concerns around single use plastics and views on supporting the environment have strengthened substantially. This original development still has a large footprint of almost 2 acres that will see the removal of many trees and the loss of public accessible green space.

“However, we are encouraged by this new consultation and a commitment to work with us and other key stakeholders to achieve a net biodiversity gain for the site and to create more shared areas. Any replacement for land lost is a must for the local community. We would encourage all those with an interest to attend the planned events and make their views known.”

Black Sheep Brewery in Masham has secured a major deal with Leeds-based airline Jet2.com.

Black Sheep Ale will be available in a 330ml can on all the airline’s flights from its 10 UK bases from May 1.

Jet2.com is the UK’s third largest airline.

Black Sheep Ale is one of the brewery’s best loved beers.  It was the first beer to be bottled at Black Sheep and is nationally available in 500ml bottle.

Charlene Lyons, chief executive of Black Sheep Brewery, said:

“We’re incredibly proud of this agreement with Jet2.com to feature Black Sheep Ale on flights to and from the UK, which will introduce one of Yorkshire’s best exports to new audiences.

“This is a great collaboration between two Yorkshire companies that will also offer international visitors to Britain a taste of our wonderful county before they touch down in the UK.”

Managing director at Harrogate Spring Water steps down

After 15 years at the helm, James Cain has announced he will be stepping down as managing director of Harrogate Spring Water.

French firm Danone acquired Harrogate Spring Water two years ago and Mr Cain said “it is now the right time for me to hand over the baton”.

Mr Cain will remain a minority shareholder alongside the rest of the Cain family, he said:

“During my time with Harrogate Spring Water, I have been immensely proud of the brands that we have created as well as the people who have been a part of our journey, helping to build a business and continue a legacy in revitalising the town’s illustrious spa heritage.”

Mr Cain is to be replaced by Richard Hall, who is currently a vice president within Danone’s UK & Ireland business. He will take on the role from May 3.

Richard Hall

Mr Hall said:

“Harrogate Spring Water is a great brand with great heritage and is a very important part of Danone’s UK water business. It will be my privilege to lead the operation as we look to grow further and take the Harrogate Spring Water brand to more venues and consumers in 2022.”

It is the youth of today who often get stereotyped as caring more about scrolling social media than taking action to save the planet.

Just last year there was huge anger towards youngsters who partied on the Stray in Harrogate, leaving council workers and volunteers to clean up.

However, it appears that this view couldn’t be further from the truth.

‘Littering most harmful for the environment’

A survey commissioned by Harrogate Spring Water as part of a successful environmental campaign launched by the company last month revealed that children and young people see littering as the individual act which most harms the environment.

The poll of more than 1,000 children, aged between nine and 16, found that 92 per cent of youngsters rated the environment as important to them – well ahead of the 47 per cent who rated their social media profiles as important.

And over three quarters of children admitted that they were worried about the environment, with littering seen as the worst environmental offence and children saying that adults should lead by example in teaching them how to protect the planet.

Valley Gardens

So as part of Harrogate Spring Water’s ‘Lunchtime Litter Pick’ campaign, I took my two boys, Noah and Luca, to the Valley Gardens to pick up some rubbish and ask them about their views on the issue.

It certainly might not be the first activity you think of when it comes to family time, but the kids, who are aged three and eight, were genuinely quite excited when I told them what we were up to.

We had some spare time after school, and thanks to the lighter evenings, we headed out with our high vis vests, gloves – make sure your children wear thick ones – and bin bags and got to work.

Within an hour we had filled one bin bag, which was surprising, as you certainly don’t realise just how much there is strewn about.

The boys had a whale of a time running around in the fresh air, excitedly shouting when they spotted a piece of litter.

And admittedly it felt really good to be doing our bit, even in a small way. Small steps can make big changes as we all know.

Litter picking adventure

When we got home, we had a chat about our litter picking adventure.

Noah said:

“There were lots of cans in the park and when we were coming back home I saw lots of plastic bags that had blown into trees.

“It’s bad that people drop litter because animals might get stuck and they might suffocate. It’s not good for the planet. They should put it in the bin.

“I really enjoyed litter picking because I like to help save the world. More people should pick it up because then there would be less rubbish. I’m going to keep doing it.”

Luca said everyone should help pick up rubbish, and when asked what he would do if he saw someone dropping it, he said:

“I will tell the police officers and the bin lorry men, because then they will come and pick it up in their truck.”

Campaign

The campaign, which was launched in support of environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy’s Great British Spring Clean 2022, has seen dozens of families and companies in the area join in and help Keep Yorkshire Tidy this Spring – for the environment and their wellbeing.

Harrogate Spring Water led the charge to clear the region’s streets, paths and public spaces of litter through their campaign, offering local businesses free litter picking kits to encourage staff to take a break in the fresh air, while doing something positive within their community.

The company enlisted the help of actress Natalie Anderson, Harrogate Town FC and its own workforce in its bid to encourage families, community groups and residents to play their part.

Natalie Anderson, known for her starring roles in Emmerdale and Hollyoaks, also took part in a litter pick in Harrogate as part of the campaign.

She said:

“Litter picking is one of the easiest ways we can all take care of our community and the beautiful Yorkshire countryside.

“I know from conversations with my son how important the environment is to the younger generation, and getting involved in this campaign is a great way for parents to lead by example in protecting the planet.”

Positive action

The company is also encouraging people to join Harrogate Borough Council’s series of organised anti-litter drives as they look to make the area an even better place to live by clearing up litter and encouraging people to recycle more.

The campaign was launched in the wake of the research commissioned by Harrogate Spring Water and carried out by iconic children’s comic The Beano.

The company hopes that by joining in the litter picking drive, families can take positive action on the environment and the next generation can learn more about how they can play their part in keeping waste out of nature and in the recycling stream.

‘Proud to call Harrogate home’

James Cain OBE, managing director at Harrogate Spring Water, said:

“We are proud to call Harrogate home. By coming together as a community to keep our historic town looking beautiful, we have taken positive action for the present as well as honouring Harrogate’s commitment for future generations.

“We’re passionate about preventing littering, but also about ensuring as much can be recycled as possible.

“Whether it’s recycling and reusing wherever possible or taking a break in the fresh air to tidy up our streets and green spaces, we’re continuing to work together to keep Harrogate beautiful and litter-free.”

To find out more about the campaign and to play your part, head to http://www.harrogatespring.com/lunchtimelitterpick

New details have emerged about Harrogate Spring Water’s rental agreements with the borough council, as the company has still yet to reveal latest expansion plans for its bottled water plant.

After being refused permission to expand onto Rotary Wood in January 2021, the company said it would submit new plans “in the coming weeks”.

But eight months on after that statement last July, there is still no sign of another planning application from the firm which faced a backlash from campaigners, residents and councillors after having its proposals recommended for approval by Harrogate Borough Council.

The council has now revealed new details of a turnover-based rent agreement that it has had with Harrogate Spring Water since the company first opened its Harlow Hill site in 2002.

In response to a Freedom of Information request, the council refused to say how much money it has received as the details are deemed to be of “commercial value”.

But it did disclose for the first time that it receives 0.5% of Harrogate Spring Water’s annual turnover.

And when calculated using the company’s turnover figures, the Local Democracy Reporting Service has found that the council has received an estimated £853,033 over an 18-year period.

This is on top of an annual base rent which was initially agreed at £10,000 in 2002 and has since climbed to £15,232 following a review every five years.

Aerial view of Harrogate Spring Water. Pic: Pinewoods Conservation Group

Conflict of interest questions

These financial benefits for the council have previously raised questions over a potential conflict of interest in its decision-making for Harrogate Spring Water’s expansion plans.

But the council has repeatedly said there is no such risk and that it has followed the correct procedures when dealing with the proposals.

A council spokesperson said:

“As we’ve said numerous times, there is no conflict of interest.

“Land/site ownership is not a material consideration when an application is considered.

“It is normal practice for planning authorities to take decisions on planning applications relating to land in its own ownership.

“There are no requirements nationally for a planning application – whether it is on council-owned land or not – to be determined by another local planning authority or other mechanism.”

The council also confirmed it has no other turnover-based rent agreements with any other of its tenants.

And it said the rent from Harrogate Spring Water is used to “deliver valuable front-line services across the Harrogate district.”

125-year lease

This comes as emails obtained in a separate Freedom of Information request show the council has said it would consider selling Rotary Wood to Harrogate Spring Water.

The site is subject to a 125-year lease which is reportedly worth £1.13 million.

When the council recommended the company’s expansion plans for approval last year, it said there were “significant economic benefits of the proposed development, including job creation, other financial benefits to the district and the enhancement of the Harrogate brand.”

Read more:

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But this was not a view shared by campaigners who argued that in the face of a climate emergency, it was vital that the council preserved green spaces and not replaced them with a larger factory producing plastic bottled water.

This argument was backed by members of the council’s own planning committee who accused the authority of putting “profit and plastic before impact on the environment”.

Harrogate Spring Water was first granted outline planning permission to expand its bottling site onto Rotary Wood – which was planted by children and forms part of the 40-hectare Pinewoods forest – in 2017.

Two years later, the company submitted a revised application that was 40% larger than the one originally approved, but then failed to win full permission.

In a new statement issued this week, Harrogate Spring Water said it is currently “evaluating its plans” but did not hint at when its latest proposals could be revealed.

The company also said it is “committed to working with the public” and “will continue to keep people engaged and informed as part of the process”.

Rotary Wood plans

Pinewoods Conservation Group – the charity responsible for the conservation of the Pinewoods forest – has been at the forefront of the objections to the company’s expansion over Rotary Wood.

The charity said there have been “no proactive discussions” from Harrogate Spring Water over its latest plans which it said should be scrapped altogether.

A charity spokesperson said:

“With each year that passes the Rotary Wood area of the Pinewoods becomes a more mature woodland with increasing bird and plant life, improving the biodiversity of the area and improving air quality.

“The continued delays are however now impacting on any future plans for that area of the Pinewoods. We know, for example, that footpath works are much needed but are reluctant to potentially waste limited charity funds.

“We hope that with continued public pressure on unsustainable businesses such as Harrogate Spring Water, and this community site specifically, that any expansion plans are now abandoned.”

Strayside Sunday is our monthly political opinion column. It is written by Paul Baverstock, former Director of Communications for the Conservative Party. 

I spent my school years keenly aware of Cold War realpolitik, and of the unthinkable nuclear consequences, should cold turn hot. 1983, when I was 16, saw the release of nuclear war film The Day After, to be followed in 1984 by the release of the lower budget (British set and made) Threads, bleaker and more frightening in measures equal. My teenage years, and those of my peer group, passed on red alert, with any siren sound in the valley causing a flash of pulse quickening panic. Was this to be the beginning of the end?

I’m reminded of this of course by current events in Ukraine. At time of writing, we are 12 days into Russia’s invasion. Yet, brave Ukraine, led by President Volodymyr Zelensky, resists. Russia’s superior force impeded by courageous and dogged Ukrainian defence and, it seems, handicapped by over ambitious strategic planning, inept military leadership and sagging soldierly morale. We watch helplessly from the side-lines as Ukrainian citizens suffer what seems to be indiscriminate bombardment, but which must be bombardment by cruel design.

We wince, embarrassed by the sure knowledge that, hitherto, we in the UK have turned a blind eye to the dirty Russian money laundering through London and Surrey’s perpetually empty, always modernising mansions and penthouses. So now we applaud our government and those of our NATO and European allies as they move to punish Russia through the imposition of severe sanctions and financial restrictions or economic penalties. We applaud international businesses from Apple and Ikea, to TikTok and Zara, and our local big brands Harrogate Spring Water and Yorkshire Tea -all of whom have ceased operations in Russia.  And we applaud the delivery of our and our allies anti-tank and other weapons to assist Ukraine’s fighters in eking out another hour, perhaps another day of resistance.

What we cannot do for Ukraine, what we must not do, so the orthodoxy goes, is to do what we all know it would take to give them a real chance of victory; we cannot put NATO boots on the ground, nor can we institute a no-fly zone. Why? Because to do so would put us in direct conflict with Russia, a shooting war with a Russia led by an increasingly unstable dictator who has threatened, in none too subtle terms, to use his arsenal of nuclear weapons against us. And, after all, Ukraine isn’t a NATO member, so can’t benefit from Article 5 protections. We dare not risk Putin’s ire nor a nuclear conflagration so, ergo, we send humanitarian aid and military supplies, and we wait. We wait for the inevitable and tragic moment when Russia overruns Kyiv and its sister cities, kills or imprisons Ukraine’s democratically elected leadership, installs a puppet government, and claims the country for its own.  When that happens – although every ounce of my being wishes that it were “if” it happens – when that happens, Russia and NATO will face each other across the European borders of, among others, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland. And when we do President Putin will know that we in NATO have already failed his test of our nerve. He will hold the upper hand.

During my school days it was widely held that MAD (the doctrine of mutually assured destruction) kept the nuclear peace.  Rational actors bound inaction by the fact that war would mean the end of everything. I worry now that we will face a new asymmetrical nuclear threat, one in which the main protagonist is willing to play a game with the highest of all stakes, while we will not. If we get to that point, as well we might, we may yet regret saying no to a no-fly zone for Ukraine.

Meanwhile there is more than a hint of bathos in the story of retired and decorated Harrogate fireman Bruce Reid. Mr. Reid flew to Poland this week and made his way to the Ukrainian border, intent on volunteering his firefighting services. Told that he should instead find his way 30 miles across the border to the Yavoriv military base, where he would be equipped and taught to fight, Mr. Reid turned back, returning to his 10-year-old granddaughter and the rest of his worried-sick family. No matter, Mr. Reid’s status as a hero is already cemented in my view by his years of bravery in the Fire Service, and by his willingness to volunteer those special skills in the service of Ukraine.

Against this backdrop of heart-breaking world affairs, it seems somehow small to have a go at an obviously failed British politician.  But I’m so blood boilingly angry about the announcement of a Knighthood last week for Sir, yes Sir! Gavin Williamson that I can’t help myself. Mr. Williamson was a serial failure in government. But as an ex-whip he knows where Boris’ bodies are buried so needs to be kept quiet. He doesn’t deserve it and it thoroughly demeans the honours system.

If we are going to face another Cold War then we will all have to believe in our way of life and government to face down Russia.  To ask that level of commitment and sacrifice, to ask us to follow the example of Ukraine, requires our system of government to retain its moral authority. Giving a gong to this man does not help build confidence.

That’s my Strayside Sunday.

Read More:

• Ukraine crisis: Guide to how you can help locally
• Strayside Sunday: It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to..
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Harrogate Spring Water and Yorkshire Tea said today they will cease trade with Russia with immediate effect.

The two Harrogate-based companies issued statements in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has so far claimed about 13,000 lives and forced two million people to flee their homes.

A Harrogate Spring Water spokesperson said:

“Harrogate Spring Water has made the decision to stop all exports to Russia with immediate effect.”

Russia has been one of Harrogate Spring Water’s biggest export markets in the past, according to multiple articles published in 2013.

An article in The Business Desk, published in 2013, said water sales in Russia has increased by 40% year-on-year.

The company itself tweeted an image of Russian President Vladimir Putin drinking a bottle of its water in 2013.

https://twitter.com/HarrogateSpring/status/375589127275560960?s=20&t=DQo5_CMsbRdj8AltJnys1g

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Yorkshire Tea is owned by Taylors of Harrogate, a 130-year-old company founded in Harrogate. It has a distributer in Moscow.

A spokesperson for Taylors of Harrogate said today:

“Like everyone, we’ve been deeply shocked and saddened by the invasion and our thoughts are with all those impacted.

“Our ethical trade and human rights policy states that our values guide how we work with suppliers, customers and distributors, including the provision that we will not trade with individuals, entities, regions or countries where UK sanctions have been applied.

“While Russia has been an export market for some of our teas for several years, as a result of the invasion and the subsequent sanctions we’ve suspended trade.”

All brands owned by Taylors of Harrogate, which also include coffee products, will no longer be exported to Russia.