Harrogate Spring Water, now part of the French multinational Danone, holds two Environment Agency abstraction licences. Together, they allow the company to take up to 464 million litres of groundwater every year from beneath Harrogate - about 1.27 million litres per day.

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Freedom of Information disclosures show that between 2014 and 2024 the company removed more than 1.6 billion litres from the same aquifer. These are volumes comparable to the annual water consumption of thousands of households.

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The financial return to the town is minimal. Under the lease with North Yorkshire Council - the land’s freeholder - the royalty rate is 0.5 % of turnover, equivalent to roughly 0.3 pence per litre. Above a turnover threshold of £40 million, that percentage drops to 0.1 %. The structure therefore rewards higher volumes while shrinking the town’s share.

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• Two licences: Harlow Moor Road (70,000 m³ / yr) and Oakdale Bridge (394,200 m³ / yr)

• Combined daily limit: 1.27 million litres

• Royalties 2024 / 25: ≈ £232,926

• All revenue absorbed into the council’s general budget; no earmarked community or ecological use

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This imbalance between industrial scale and public benefit has become the defining feature of the operation.