DRINKS giant Coca-Cola has cooled down its plans to sink another bore hole into the ecologically sensitive Malvern Hills.

The firm has withdrawn its planning application - lodged with Hereford County Council planners - to allow more time for consultation between themselves, English Nature and the Environment Agency all of which harboured concerns about the scheme's environmental impact.

Coca-Cola had planned to lay a 1.7-mile pipeline from the Walms Well source on Eastnor Estate, to a junction with the existing pipe network at Primes Well, near the Company's Colwall factory.

The new bore hole and pipe would extract an extra 110,000 litres of water a day from the ancient well, once used by the Celts and Romans.

The Eastnor Estate is willing in principal to allow Coca-Cola to tap the site.

Estate director, James Harvey-Bathurst, said the withdrawal of the application was to allow more time for agencies to examine Coca-Cola's hydrogeology surveys.

"It's to give the Government agencies involved in considering the plans, more time to look at the application and surveys," he said.

He made no further comment about when, or if, Coca-Cola would reactivate the plans.

English Nature, which fears the plans could detrimentally affect nearby New Wood - a site of Special Scientific Interest - is happy with Coca-Cola's latest action.

"I am pleased that they have withdrawn the application, because it will give us more time to discuss with them our concerns and those from the Environment Agency. It also gives Coca-Cola the chance to revise any further applications with our worries taken into consideration," said Dr Peter Holmes, a conservation officer covering Worcestershire for English Nature.

The conservation organisation is concerned that the extra commercial demand on the river Leaden, which feeds Walms Well, could suck the river dry.

Helen Stace, also from English Nature, said the Leaden already suffers from a low flow in the summer, and this could aggravate the situation.

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