North Yorkshire councillors defer decision on controversial Harrogate Spring Water expansion
Councillors said they wanted more information
Last updated 28th Oct 2025
Councillors have deferred a decision on the controversial expansion of a bottled water factory into an area of community woodland.
Harrogate Spring Water’s application to increase the size of its plant in the town’s Harlow Moor Road will be brought back to a future planning meeting after councillors said they wanted more information.
The decision was taken amid objections from campaign groups and local politicians over the loss of around 500 trees in Rotary Wood, an area of community woodland.
Members of North Yorkshire Council’s Harrogate and Knaresborough area planning committee said they needed to know the terms of a proposed section 106 agreement between the applicant and the council before making a decision, rather than leaving it for officers to decide after a decision had been taken.
Councillors also wanted more information on proposed measures to mitigate the loss of the trees, including plans for a new wet woodland near the bottling plant.
These measures were noted as a condition — condition 12 — when the original outline application for the extension was passed in 2017, but opponents of the scheme say the condition should have been met before the latest reserved matters application was made.
Chair of the planning meeting, Councillor Chris Aldred, told members of the public who attended the meeting: “We are concerned about the 106, we’re concerned about the biodiversity, we’re concerned about condition 12, so it hasn’t been granted and it will come back to committee.
“Most applications go to 106 between the officers and the applicant. We are saying we want it back here.
“We, as councillors, want to have a look at this agreement, so it’s quite an unusual thing to do.”
The application was recommended for approval by planning officers, but councillors voted to defer a decision by three votes to two
Councillor Matt Walker was one of two councillors who indicated they would vote to reject the application.
He highlighted a solicitor’s letter sent to the council by objectors which warned of legal action if the application was approved amid claims the outline planning permission had expired and conditions had not been met.
Although council officers said they disagreed with the letter, Cllr Walker said: “From a council perspective, (approval) is going to cost the council an awful lot of money.”
Cllr Walker added that it was a moral decision for him and that he agreed with his four-year-old niece, who said plastic bottles were not a good thing.
The meeting also heard from Neil Hind, who spoke on behalf of several community groups opposed to the application.
He said: “The site itself forms part of the Pinewoods Green corridor, a valued space, recognised as an asset of community value.
“It’s a living woodland used daily for walking, education and well-being — this is not just a spare piece of land.”
Richard Hall, managing director of Harrogate Spring Water, told the meeting that the expanded plant would create 50 new jobs.
He said: “The central matter of concern raised during the consultations was the loss of trees in Rotary, and our proposal will create a new area of publicly accessible woodland, the same size as the area that would be lost and it will be joined up with Rotary Wood and the Pinewoods.
“We’d like to continue to contribute to the prosperity of Harrogate and to do so we must be able to grow sustainably and to compete. “
The meeting heard that Dame Judy Dench had spoken out against the development.
A quote reportedly from the star was read out by Green Party councillor Arnold Warneken.
It said: “To destroy Rotary Wood for corporate expansion would be an act of environmental vandalism — erasing a thriving habitat planted by children and nurtured by a community that believed in protecting our future.”
Ahead of the meeting at the Civic Centre in Harrogate, campaign group Save Rotary Wood Again held a “tree-themed” protest.
The meeting had been preceded by claims and counter-claims by the applicant and opponents of the scheme.
Harrogate Spring Water said 71 per cent of local residents who took part in its survey “had a positive impression” of the plans.
But Pinewoods Conservation Group said a survey conducted on its behalf of 500 people found that 86 per cent of Harrogate residents were opposed to the expansion.
No date was set for the application to be brought back before the planning committee.