Planning decisions made around a water company’s proposed factory expansion into community woodland have been questioned by two North Yorkshire councillors.

Harrogate Spring Water was granted outline planning permission in 2017 to extend its bottling plant in Harlow Moor Road, Harrogate.

The expansion would mean the loss of around 500 trees in Rotary Wood, an area of community woodland planted around 20 years ago and owned by North Yorkshire Council.

The mineral water company, owned by food and drunk multi-national Danone, says it will plant almost 3,000 new trees to make up for those lost due to the expansion.

Councillors Mike Schofield and Arnold Warneken at the Harrogate Spring Water site.

placeholder image — Councillors Mike Schofield and Arnold Warneken at the Harrogate Spring Water site.

But councillors and local groups are still determined to challenge the scheme and say that key conditions of the outline planning consent have not been met.

A reserved matters application was lodged in 2020 and revised earlier this year, but concerns have been raised about missing surveys and the lack of a clear biodiversity plan.

North Yorkshire Councillors Mike Schofield and Arnold Warneken are among those speaking out against the scheme, alongside Pinewoods Conservation Trust, Save Rotary Wood and the CPRE countryside charity.

Objectors say the company originally proposed a ten per cent biodiversity net gain, but this has since shifted to a “no net loss” approach.

They also claim that only a basic ecology survey has been carried out, with no full ecological impact assessment to guide mitigation plans, while a tree survey was not completed until 2024, four years after the reserved matters application was submitted.

Campaigners also argue that the land Harrogate Spring Water proposes to use as replacement habitat will not be owned by the community or the council, but will remain privately held by the company.

Coun Schofield, independent councillor for the Harlow and St Georges division, said: “This our community space that is well-used. It’s our beating heart, it’s our healthy lungs.

“Once it’s gone, it’s gone. We need to consider this application very carefully.”

The reserved matters application is expected to go back before North Yorkshire Council planning committee members for final approval later this year.

Coun Warneken, Green Party councillor for the Ouseburn division, said: “Do we really want to cut down a wood that our community planted only 20 years ago, and is a much-loved and well-used amenity? Can we really trade our trees for a business to take more of our water?

“The (planning) committee can’t ask those questions, because outline permission has been granted.

“But they can ask, ‘can the council be sure that this is legally sound when the biodiversity picture has been so disjointed? Should it be allowed, when it never met the conditions of the outline permission?’”

In response to the criticism, Harrogate Spring Water said a new, publicly accessible two-acre woodland would be created adjacent to Rotary Wood and behind the existing Harrogate Spring Water site on Harlow Moor Road.

Around 490 trees would be planted in this new woodland, while a further 2,500 would be planted at other sites around Harrogate.

Richard Hall, managing director, said in a statement issued earlier this year: “Our goal is to leave behind something truly positive – a flourishing public woodland and six times more trees planted than removed.

“I believe that this is a best-in-class plan to deliver business growth while minimising environmental impact.”

The company said the proposed expansion would generate more than 50 new jobs.