TV presenter Julia Bradbury has written an open letter to Harrogate Borough Council urging them to abort plans to extend a bottling plant onto a community woodland.
The council are set to make a decision tomorrow (Tuesday 26th January) on whether Harrogate Spring Water and Danone can extend their existing bottling plant into Harrogate’s Rotary Wood – a community woodland planted by school children.
And Julia Bradbury, best known for co-presenting the BBC’s Countryfile, has written a letter to Harrogate Borough Council opposing the plans, stating it would be “morally and financially wrong.”
This is my letter to the councillors making the decision re:the @HarrogateSpring @Danone plastic bottling plant which is going to be built OVER an existing woodland created & used by the local community. We ALL need green spaces more than ever #planning @PinewoodsHgt @Harrogatebc pic.twitter.com/qdehFEQZXd
— Julia Bradbury💙 (@JuliaBradbury) January 23, 2021
Ms Bradbury, who shared the open letter via her Twitter account, has told councillors that the community “needs and deserves access to this much loved green space” and urged them to help create a “happy and healthy future” for our children.
Harrogate Spring Water was originally granted planning permission to expand the bottling site in 2017 – a decision that was opposed by various green groups.
However in 2019, the company, alongside majority stakeholders Danone, submitted a revised application for a site that is around 40% larger.
To compensate for cutting down more than half of Rotary Wood, the two companies have offered to replant the trees lost on another site in Harrogate.
Harrogate Borough Council are expected to make a decision on the plans tomorrow (Tuesday 26th January) at a planned meeting.
