Overview
- Councillors voted 3–2 to defer the reserved matters application, seeking to scrutinize the section 106 terms and evidence of compliance with condition 12 on biodiversity.
- The plan would remove about 500 trees from Rotary Wood, which is part of the Pinewoods green corridor and listed as an asset of community value.
- An objectors’ solicitor warned of possible legal action, claiming the 2017 outline consent had expired and conditions were unmet, a position council officers disputed.
- Harrogate Spring Water says the expansion would create over 50 jobs, add an estimated £2.3 million a year to the local economy, and provide replacement publicly accessible and wet woodland linked to Pinewoods.
- Protests continued and Dame Judi Dench’s opposition was read to the committee, and no date has been set for the application to return.