REVEALED: Significant changes to Harrogate Spring Water's expansion plans
Harrogate Spring Water has announced it has finally submitted its updated plans for a controversial expansion following months of public consultation – with a few significant changes.
The bottled water company, which carries the town’s name and spa branding all round the world, says it has submitted the final version of its proposals to North Yorkshire Council after a further round of consultations with community groups, stakeholders and local authority officials.
To compensate for the loss of trees at Rotary Wood caused by the planned expansion of the bottling plant on Harlow Moor Road near the Pinewoods, the centrepiece of Harrogate Spring Water’s revised proposal is the creation of an area of new publicly accessible woodland planted on two acres of land immediately next to Rotary Wood and to the rear of the existing Harrogate Spring Water operations on Harlow Moor Road.
There will also be additional tree planting within the current Rotary Wood site, where it aims to expand its production facilities.
The final version of the proposals contains a number of changes from the plan originally sent to North Yorkshire Council in February of this year.
Changes include:
A reduction in the height of the expansion building.
The introduction of timber cladding for the expansion building.
Updated badger, bat and tree surveys.
Following a request from council tree experts, the planting programme planned for the new publicly accessible woodland next to Rotary Wood has also been revised.
The initial plans sought to plant around 1,460 trees on existing Harrogate Spring Water land and in the new community woodland.
North Yorkshire Council has requested, instead, the following:
The planting of around 660 larger and more mature trees.
This is based on advice from the council’s arboriculturist on the number and mix of trees which is most likely to allow the new woodland to flourish and grow.
Richard Hall, managing director at Harrogate Spring Water, said: “We are a business whose success is rooted in the town of Harrogate and its people, so it is really important for us to work in partnership with the local community.
“Through this process we have engaged and listened to the people of Harrogate to ensure that their views are taken on board when we consider how best to expand what is a very successful and growing business - one which creates jobs and investment for Harrogate and proudly carries the name of the town right across the country.
“The feedback was clear, that the loss of trees and publicly accessible woodland is a concern.
“At the end of this process, we want to see a thriving, accessible community woodland and six times as many trees planted in Harrogate as are lost during the building process.”
Harrogate Spring Water had also planned to plant an additional 1,500 trees in other locations in Harrogate.
This number will be increased by 800 trees approximately to make up for the number of trees that will not be planted on site and in the new woodland.
The company, which is part of the Danone empire which also owns Evian and Volvic, says its expansion will help to create over 50 new jobs for local people, in addition to at least 20 jobs in the local construction sector during the build.
The company also hopes that the expansion will enable it to offer opportunities for apprenticeships in the future.
The Reserved Matters application will be available in the coming week on the North Yorkshire Council website at:
where users can leave views and comments.
Once the application has been received by North Yorkshire Council, it will subject to a local consultation process led by the council.
It will then be reported to Planning Committee where councillors will consider the application.