Pinewoods Conservation Group is to meet representatives from Harrogate Spring Water to discuss the company’s plans to expand its bottling plant.

The French-owned firm announced last month it will revert to its original 2017 planning application, which involves felling trees in a section of the Pinewoods called Rotary Wood.

However, the number of trees felled would be less than contained in plans rejected last year by Harrogate Borough Council.

Harrogate Spring Water’s new application will propose how the lost trees will be compensated for.

The meeting is set to take place within the next few weeks. It will be the first time the charity, which protects the council-owned woodland, has met the company since it announced it was pressing ahead with the expansion.

Online platform

The charity has used online polling platform Harrogate District Consensus to find out what is and isn’t acceptable to residents with the new planning application.

At the time of publication, over 420 people have given their thoughts on issues such as how many trees the company should replant and plastic pollution and biodiversity loss.

Neil Hind, chair of Pinewoods Conservation Group, said it would bring some of the most popular statements that people have submitted to the meeting in the hopes of presenting a consensus.

He said:

“We know this is a very emotive subject, so we need a way to gather some more scientific based views from our members, visitors to the Pinewoods and Harrogate residents. This system allows people to agree or disagree with statements but also add new statements to express their own feeling on the subject.

“We hope that this will form a consensus of views and even some new thinking on this issue. We would really encourage people to get involved and make their views known. These views will then be shared with the Harrogate Spring Water and Danone management when we meet and will also be used as part of our submission to the consultation process.”

Read more:

• Hot Seat: Harrogate Spring Water’s new boss faces old dilemma

• Harrogate Spring Water: New details about how council makes money from bottled water plant

Harrogate Spring Water’s new chief executive Richard Hall recently told the Stray Ferret the company would be “much more open” about its latest plans, which are yet to be submitted to Harrogate Borough Council.

A series of meetings with local stakeholder groups are planned and there will be an open consultation event next month.

A spokesperson for Harrogate Spring Water, whose headquarters is on Harlow Moor Road. said:

“We are starting our consultation process this month via meetings with community stakeholder groups prior to an open public consultation event which we plan to hold in July.

“We will announce details of this event shortly, but anyone who cannot come along can still have their say via a dedicated webpage at https://www.harrogatespring.com/facility-extension/”

The former RAF base at Linton-on-Ouse will be used to house asylum seekers, the government has announced today.

It’s part of a controversial Home Office plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda to have their asylum claims processed.

Before potentially being flown out to the African country, asylum seekers will be held in ‘reception centres’ across the UK for up to six months, with the first announced being at Linton-on-Ouse.

The site closed in 2020 after being used by the RAF for almost a century. It was most recently used as a jet training facility and Prince William trained there.

Although located in Hambleton, it is only about a mile from the Harrogate district, on the other side of the River Ouse. It’s close to villages Thorpe Underwood, Little Ouseburn and Nun Monkton.

Kevin Hollinrake, MP for Thirsk and Malton, said in a statement he had been assured by the immigration minister that the time limit for any asylum seekers to remain at the site will be 180 days

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The government said it hopes the changes will help it “crack down” on people-smuggling gangs.

According to the BBC, 28,526 people are known to have crossed the channel in small boats in 2021, up from 8,404 in 2020.

Home Secretary, Priti Patel, said:

“The global migration crisis and how we tackle illegal migration requires new world-leading solutions. There are an estimated 80 million people displaced in the world and the global approach to asylum and migration is broken.

“Existing approaches have failed and there is no single solution to tackle these problems. Change is needed because people are dying attempting to come to the UK illegally.

The proposal has been criticised by human rights groups and opposition political parties.

Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper called the proposals a “shameful announcement meant to distract from Boris Johnson’s recent law-breaking”.

She added:

“It is an unworkable, unethical and extortionate policy that would cost the UK taxpayer billions of pounds during a cost of living crisis and would make it harder not easier to get fast and fair asylum decisions.”