Harrogate Spring Water, which is owned by the multinational Danone, is planning to cut down a wood planted by schoolchildren in order to expand its bottling factory in the North Yorkshire town.
Two primary schools, along with other local volunteers, helped to plant 450 trees in a project aimed at fighting climate breakdown organised by the Rotary Club of Harrogate almost 20 years ago.
“They taught us that trees made oxygen and were good for us,” said Lily Stockburn who took part in the tree-planting when she was six years old. “I’m devastated they want to destroy it. To cut down trees to make more plastic bottles goes against everything we learned.”
“It’s lovely woodland. Lots of people walk their dogs there, there’s loads of wildlife,” she added.
Tom Gordon, the local MP, said “People are frustrated and upset about the planned changes to this space and don’t feel they’ve been listened too. We need to strike a balance between creating good quality jobs and protecting our green spaces.”
The woodland, which is known as Rotary Wood, includes oak, birch, willow, hornbeam, pine and wild cherry trees and is managed by the Pinewoods Conservation Group, which strongly objects to the change. Its chair, Neil Hind, said: “It is a vital habitat for bats, including protected species, and forms part of an ecosystem that our community depends on for recreation, education and wellbeing.”
The expansion plan for the bottling plant received outline planning permission in 2017, but the details of the project still require approval. After many local objections, Harrogate Spring Water recently submitted a revised plan to the local authority.
The company’s managing director, Richard Hall, told the Guardian: “We have been on a journey to bring the community with us as we seek to expand our site. In the feedback we received it was clear that the loss of trees and publicly accessible woodland was the primary concern, which is why the centrepiece of our plan is now an area of new community woodland – of the same size as the area impacted – joined up with the existing Rotary Wood.”
He added: “We have also committed to further tree planting. Taken together, our planting programme will result in some 3,000 trees planted, meaning there will be six times as many trees planted in Harrogate as are lost during the building process.”
The expansion, which the company says will create 50 new jobs, is supported by West & North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, whose president, Sarah Czarnecki, said “This is hugely exciting for North Yorkshire. As well as creating much-needed jobs and generating millions of pounds for the region, the new woodland will offer a fantastic asset for the community to enjoy.”
However, a study commissioned by Pinewoods Conservation Group found that expanding the bottling plant would lead to a 20% loss of biodiversity. The company accepts this figure, but says its offsite tree planting will mitigate this and eventually lead to a biodiversity gain.
Sarah Gibbs, from the local campaign group, Save Rotary Wood, the Pinewoods, described this as “greenwash”, adding: “The wood was planted by people for the people and a large global plastic-bottle-producing corporation wants to uproot our efforts.”
North Yorkshire council said it was considering the revised plans, “which have been the subject of a full reconsultation exercise”.
Harrogate Spring Water has a licence to extract 464m litres of water a year from local underground sources. The company was bought in 2020 by Danone, which is majority-owned by US investors including BlackRock and Capital Group Companies. Danone is the world’s second-largest producer of bottled water. Its brands include Evian, Badoit and Volvic.
• This article was amended on 9 December 2024. The main image was taken by Anna Gugan and not Mark Doherty as an earlier version said.
