HBC review Harrogate Spring Water/ Danone bottling plant original plans

Following the rejection of the recent planning variation for a larger extension to the Harrogate Spring Water bottling plant into Rotary Wood,  the original application (20/01539/REMMAJ) is now being reviewed by Harrogate Council.

Image credit to Barton Willmore.

The full plans for the original extension were submitted in May 2020 along with the variation for the larger extension. (As a reminder outline planning for the original extension was approved in May 2017 with a number of strict condition.)

A spokesperson for the Pinewoods Conservation Group said:

We held any decision on those full plans until we knew the outcome of the application for the larger site. However, we now expect the planning committee to be asked to approve the original application over the next few months.

Our view is that the conditions outlined by the planning committee original have not been met and should not be approved. In fact these original plans could be seen as worse than those recently rejected, as they offer no compensation land with section 3.21 of the submission saying ”With regard to condition 10, at this moment in time, we believe that we can mitigate the scale of the proposal on-site.

In reality this means that the plan would be to plant additional trees within Rotary Wood and not replace any lost land. This will obviously be disappointing to our members and many of the residents of Harrogate.

A spokesperson for the Pinewoods Conservation Group said:

All the reasons to reject the larger extension still apply so we urgently need your help to object to the original application. A quick guide on objecting is below if able to support.

We will also be discussing this in more detail at out AGM later this week.

It is clear that on review of the full planning application for the original extension that the strict conditions applied by the planning committee have not been met. There is no offer of any compensatory land that is a massive backwards step from the previous rejected application. If approved this would result in a massive ecological loss for Harrogate and The Pinewoods. As such we are encouraging our members and supporters to formally object to this application as soon as possible.

To make comment:

Online

• Goto https://uniformonline.harrogate.gov.uk/online-applications/
• Type in “20/01539/REMMAJ” as the application reference and click search;
• Click “Comments”
• Login and make a comment (or register);
• Add your text into the comments box, choose ‘object’ and submit.

Via Email

• Email planningcomments@harrogate.gov.uk and include “20/01539/REMMAJ” in the subject.
• Please include your name and address and make it clear you are objecting or supporting the proposal.