High Court refuses councils permission to challenge Springwell solar consent

The High Court has refused Lincolnshire County Council and North Kesteven District Council permission to take their challenge to the Springwell Solar Farm development consent order to a full judicial review hearing, the county council said on 13 November.

The councils had brought nine grounds of challenge against the consent, which the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero granted on 8 April 2026. The judge found none of them arguable, so the claim fell at the permission stage rather than being tested at a substantive hearing.

The county council said the two authorities now have no realistic routes left to challenge the scheme, which the councils describe as the UK's largest solar farm.

Cllr Sean Matthews, Leader of Lincolnshire County Council, said: "Our advice suggested that we had a good opportunity to have our claim heard at a full hearing. The courts disagreed."

The grounds

Five of the nine grounds concerned the Navenby Substation, according to the county council. It said the Government's Inspector had insisted that a requirement for planning consent was necessary to make the development acceptable, but the Secretary of State removed that requirement from the approved Development Consent Order (DCO).

The council said the judge recognised its concern that this could leave solar development going ahead with no guarantee of a substation to connect the power to the grid. The judge nonetheless concluded that the grounds were not arguable because National Policy Statements set out the importance and urgency of critical national infrastructure, the council said.

The remaining grounds related to food security, which the councils argued the Secretary of State had underplayed. At the preliminary hearing they also pointed to the absence of any information on food security impacts in the scheme's Environmental Statement.

The county council said the judge ruled those grounds not arguable because the Secretary of State was entitled to give the issue limited weight, and because the Planning Inspectorate had not requested the specific information for the Environmental Statement.

Cllr Richard Wright, Leader of North Kesteven District Council, said: "It was our case to the courts that through the Examining Authority's report and Secretary of State's decision letter, proper process was not followed and the decision was unsound."

He said the decision to go to court was not taken lightly and followed legal advice and a careful consideration of the potential costs and impact. In May he had said the cost of the action would be shared between the two councils.

The scheme

The Planning Inspectorate described Springwell Solar Farm as a solar farm with battery storage and supporting grid connection infrastructure. North Kesteven District Council said it would cover 1,280 hectares of land near Scopwick, across the heath to the A15.

The developer's project site says the scheme has been jointly developed by EDF power solutions limited and Luminous Energy and would provide enough energy to power more than 180,000 homes. It said it planned for Springwell to export electricity to the national grid from 2029.

Following the April decision, the developer said EDF power solutions and Luminous Energy would consider the details of the consent and the programme for delivery. Matthew Boulton, Director of Storage, Solar and Private Wire, said at the time that the decision was an important step forward for the project.

Timeline

According to the Planning Inspectorate, the application was submitted on 20 November 2024 and accepted for examination on 18 December 2024. The Examining Authority's recommendation went to the Secretary of State on 8 January 2026, and consent followed on 8 April. The Inspectorate said Springwell was the 106th energy application of 174 it had examined to date.

North Kesteven District Council announced on 27 April that the councils were seeking to challenge the decision, and the claim was formally issued in the High Court in late May.

On 22 September the Secretary of State issued a Correction Order and Correction Notice to the Springwell Solar Farm Order 2026 (S.I. 2026 No. 419), which came into force on 23 September, the Planning Inspectorate's project page records.

Second Lincolnshire challenge

Springwell is one of two Lincolnshire solar consents the county council has taken to the High Court this year. On 2 October it launched a judicial review into Beacon Fen Energy Park, a scheme of more than 700 hectares with solar panels, battery storage and a substation near Heckington, which the Secretary of State approved on 21 August 2026.

Announcing that claim, the county council said the nationally significant infrastructure project process had never rejected an application in Lincolnshire since it was established in 2010.

Springwell's developer is working to a grid export date of 2029.