Harrogate Spring Water will appeal April's unanimous refusal of its Rotary Wood extension. Campaigners say they will fight it, and the government now decides.
Harrogate Spring Water is going to appeal against the refusal of its plan to extend the bottling plant on Harlow Moor Road into Rotary Wood. The decision now passes from North Yorkshire Council to the government’s Planning Inspectorate.
Campaigners who fought the scheme at committee in April say they will fight the appeal too.
What the company said
The firm’s managing director, Richard Hall, gave this statement. It was carried word for word by the BBC and The Stray Ferret:
We have designed our plans extremely carefully over a number of years and have consulted both with the community and with local planning officials to ensure they are compliant, which officers recognised when they recommended the plans for approval. We do not agree with the committee’s decision and so our next step is to appeal.
He added: “Our appeal has a strong legal basis and our plans meet all the technical requirements. They will also have significant benefits for the town and I will ensure that our expansion is managed in a sympathetic, sustainable way.”
The company, which is owned by Danone, says its plans include:
- a publicly accessible two-acre woodland next to Rotary Wood
- planting six times as many trees as would be lost
- a landscaping scheme drawn up with the council’s ecologists
The company said it would formally lodge the appeal in the coming days.
What the campaigners said
Pinewoods Conservation Group, which looks after the wider Pinewoods, issued this statement, carried by the BBC and Harrogate Informer:
We are deeply disappointed that Harrogate Spring Water and its parent company, Danone, intend to appeal North Yorkshire Council’s decision to refuse their expansion plans. Rotary Wood is an established, publicly accessible community woodland, planted by local people and schoolchildren. It provides valuable wildlife habitat and a much-loved space for recreation and wellbeing.
The group urged the company to “reconsider this approach” and “explore alternatives that protect the woodland”.
The Save Rotary Wood campaign had expected this. After the April vote its own website told supporters: “It is likely Danone will appeal the decision and so we need to stay united.” It is raising money through a GoFundMe page linked from that site.
Why the council said no
The application was a reserved matters one, reference HGT20/01539/REMMAJ. Outline permission for the extension was granted in 2017. That settled the principle, including the loss of trees. Councillors could only judge the layout, access, scale, appearance and landscaping.
The committee first considered it on 28 October 2025 and deferred it until the legal agreement on replacement planting was finalised. Officers recommended approval. According to the council’s minutes of the 17 April meeting, nobody on the Harrogate and Knaresborough Area Planning Committee would propose it. Councillor Peter Lacey proposed refusal instead, seconded by Councillor Philip Broadbank. The vote was unanimous.
The committee gave two reasons:
- Landscaping: the amount, location and type of planting was “inadequate to mitigate the loss of existing planting and habitats”. That conflicts with Local Plan policies NE3 to NE7.
- Appearance: the extension “lacked local distinctiveness”. It was unacceptable in a Special Landscape Area next to a Local Green Space, against Local Plan policy HP3.
In debate, councillors called the building “overly industrial in form”. They also objected that replacement trees would be spread across the wider district rather than planted where the loss would be felt.
The scheme in numbers
The figures come from the officers’ report to the April committee:
| Site area | about 1.9 hectares |
| New floorspace | about 4,800 square metres, in three linked blocks |
| Largest dimensions | 105m long, 60m deep, 10m high |
| Staff now | 70 full time |
| Extra jobs promised | 50 |
| Public comments received | 1,370 |
The report notes the site is part of the Pinewoods, which is registered as an Asset of Community Value. The Pine Woods to the south are a designated Local Green Space.
What happens next
An applicant can appeal a refusal for up to six months from the date on the council’s decision letter, according to GOV.UK. The committee refused the scheme on 17 April, so the window closes in mid-October.
Once the appeal is lodged, the Planning Inspectorate checks that it is valid and then sets out what happens next. An inspector, not the council, will make the final decision.
What it means for you
- Rotary Wood stays as it is for now. The refusal stands until an inspector says otherwise.
- Watch for the appeal being lodged. The Planning Inspectorate will set out the procedure once it has checked the appeal is valid. That is the point to look for how residents can take part.
- Nothing about the principle will change. The 2017 outline permission remains in place, so the appeal is about the design and landscaping, not whether the plant can expand at all.
Other applications across the area are in our Harrogate planning news.
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