New drama in battle to save Rotary Wood as Harrogate MP says Government is stepping in

Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Tom Gordon says he has successfully secured Government intervention on the company’s controversial proposals plans which have seen national celebrities such as Dame Judi Dench add their voices to the furore.

In a letter to the Government, the Lib Dem MP highlighted what he said were critical failings in the planning process, including the absence of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) at both the outline and reserved matters stages of the planning process which began in 2017 a long eight years ago.

The redevelopment by the Danone-owned Harrogate Water Company, which would see around 500 trees removed from Rotary Wood, has attracted more opposition as it has gone on, with more than 1,000 formal objections submitted.

Mr Gordon, who threw his weight against the plans, said he had been working closely with local residents, calling a public meeting to save Rotary Wood and joining campaigners outside Harrogate Spring Water’s existing base at Harlow Moor Road.

In October, Harrogate Spring Water lived to fight another day when Harrogate and Knaresborough county councillors voted to defer a decision, instead ordering another look at the environmental impact of the proposed expansion.

But time may not now be on the internationally-famous company’s side after the Government’s decision to prevent North Yorkshire Council from granting planning permission while it reviews the case and decides whether to call in the application and take the decision into its own hands.

“I welcome the Government’s intervention following my calls, temporarily pausing a planning application that would see 500 trees removed and giving our community a real chance to protect Rotary Wood, “ said Mr Gordon.

“This action allows the Government to review the process so far and decide whether it’s necessary to call in the application and take the decision into its own hands."

Harrogate Spring Water originally secured outline planning permission to build a larger bottling plant in 2017, which remains valid.

The final version of its plans still awaiting approval at the reserved matters stage of the planning process contains detailed amendments originally submitted to North Yorkshire Council in October 2024, incorporating feedback from the public and council’s experts.

Harrogate Spring Water says its expansion would bring 50 new jobs and an annual £2.3 million boost to the local economy.

It says it will plant 2,500 new trees to make up for those lost due to the expansion.

This would include a new publicly-accessible two-acre woodland adjacent to Rotary Wood and behind the existing Harrogate Spring Water site.

The impact of the once independent firm being bought in 2020 by the Danone empire, which also owns Evian and Volvic, cannot be underestimated.

Opposition to the project has grown far beyond green campaigners to the point where there are now few civic figures or groups willing to take the side of Harrogate Spring Water in public.

Lib Dem Coun Graham Dixon, who represents Harlow on Harrogate Town Council said: "I am grateful to Tom Gordon for taking up this issue and getting us to where we are today.

"I, among others, have campaigned with the Save Rotary Wood group for nearly six years to reach this point."