'Save Rotary Wood' campaigners say Harrogate Spring Water’s expansion plans fail to meet town's concerns

The latest Reserved Matters application submitted on behalf of the leading bottled water brand owned by French multi-national food-products corporation Danone was meant – finally - to put to bed a public backlash over the potential loss of cherished woodland at Rotary Wood.

Planted by Harrogate schoolchildren in 2005 near the Pinewoods, the amended plans would see the axing of those trees compensated, under Harrogate Spring Water’s new plans, by the planting of approximately 1,200 new trees planted on two acres of land to the rear of the existing Harrogate Spring Water building on Harlow Hill.

The company says the revised version of the expansion plans to enable it to boost economic growth and jobs takes into account the feedback it received to its initial revised proposals in summer 2022, and the most recent feedback from a consultation event held in November 2023.

Following those events, Richard Hall, managing director of Harrogate Spring Water, pledged that: “A new community woodland which will be fully accessible to the public is at the heart of our Reserved Matters application which, we hope, will become a valued resource for the local community for many years to come."

But members of Save Rotary Wood campaign say the company’s good words are not being matched by the details of their proposals on community access or mitigating the environmental impact.

The green campaigners say it is not simply a matter of opposing the use of plastic or doing their bit on climate change.

In their opinion, the new version of the company’s plans falls short in three, specific ways to protect Harrogate’s environment.

1 The loss of Rotary Wood is not being balanced by the creation of a truly community space

“Rotary Wood is an Asset of Community Value woodland and cannot be replaced by a two-acre strip of privately owned by Danone with saplings which will take 20-plus years to be of any resemblance to the existing woodland.”

2 The revised plans involve a bigger building for Harrogate Spring Water than the original plans

“There are changes to the building components total size from the 2016 approved plans, at 4,800m2, to those put forward now: 5,458m2.

“Furthermore, there is an extra ‘external plant’ building not accounted for.”

3 An absence of evidence that the proposed new tree planting in mitigation for the loss of trees meets the brief

“There is no tree survey or Arboricultural Impact Assessment, therefore there is no evidence to support Danone/HSW’s 450 tree count on which their 3 to 1 planting ratio is based.”

The Save Rotary Wood campaign’s points are supported by North Yorkshire County Councillor Arnold Warneken, the Harrogate-based Green Party member for Ouseburn division, who argues the plan falls short of reassuring him.

As well as the issues already highlighted by campaigners, Coun Warneken is worried that, should Harrogate Spring Water win its battle at a forthcoming meeting of the county council’s planning committee, that would not be the end of the story.

"As well as my concerns over the company’s lack of regard for the loss of this public amenity, there seems to be no attempt to address the affect on biodiversity,” said Coun Warneken.

“On top of that, Harrogate Spring Water has stated it may expand its factory in future beyond this application.

"That could mean the two new acres of trees it proposes to plant could themselves be felled in 10 to 15 years' time.”