A new national report, published in October by the Woodland Trust, National Trust, Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) and the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA), has warned that the UK Government will miss its climate and biodiversity targets unless urgent action is taken to properly support tree growing and nature recovery. The report stresses the essential role trees play in sustaining biodiversity, mitigating climate change and enhancing wellbeing, and makes recommendations to the Government on how to increase the availability of homegrown trees across England, Scotland and Wales.

Yet at the same time, North Yorkshire Council is recommending the approval of final details to let a major factory expansion by Danone owned Harrogate Spring Water go ahead – despite plans indicating that up to 1,000 trees will be cut down with no guarantees for nature. The woodland was planted by local school children.

The campaign to save the trees and local wildlife habitat is being led by Pinewoods Conservation Group alongside community group Save Rotary Wood, with the support of CPRE, Friends of the Earth and the Green Party.

The planning proposal is due to be decided at a committee meeting on Tuesday 28 October, even though no fully agreed ecological mitigation plan is in place and no lighting strategy has been submitted – leaving bat protection and wider ecological impacts still uncertain.

This has been a nine-year battle for the community and for nature - the in-principal approval was originally issued in 2017, meaning the stronger tree and nature protections under the Environment Act 2021 do not apply.

Environmental legal specialists Richard Buxton Solicitors, acting on behalf of campaigners, have formally advised North Yorkshire Council that the outline permission may have lapsed due to key ecological conditions not being met in time, and that proceeding without clarification could be unlawful.

A spokesman for Pinewoods Conservation Group, said:

“At a time when national experts are sounding the alarm that the UK is set to fail on its tree-planting and biodiversity promises, we are about to allow the destruction of a thriving and much-loved woodland. You cannot claim to be tackling the climate crisis while cutting down hundreds of trees that are already locking in carbon, supporting wildlife and improving community wellbeing. This is not ‘progress’ – it is environmental backsliding dressed up as development.”

North Yorkshire Green Party Chair (interim) Arnold Warneken added:

“We are in a climate emergency, with major flooding in Harrogate - and trying to plant trees as quickly as we can – and both national and local government appear to be letting this quietly slip by. This is madness.”

The campaign has also drawn political support, with the Green Party and local independent councillor Mike Schofield writing to the Secretary of State to request intervention by the Planning Inspectorate, but this was declined.

Campaigners are now calling on North Yorkshire Council to halt approval until legal concerns are addressed, modern environmental standards are applied, and a genuine nature-positive solution is secured.