The Tillbridge Solar Order 2025

• (6) In the event of any dispute as to whether sub-paragraph (4) is properly applicable to any work in respect of which notice has been served under that sub-paragraph, or as to the reasonableness of any requirement of such a notice, Trent Valley Internal Drainage Board must not except in the case of an emergency exercise the powers conferred by sub-paragraph (5) until the dispute has been finally determined in accordance with paragraph 297.

293

If by reason of the construction of a specified work and any protective work or of the failure of any of a specified work the efficiency of any drainage work for flood defence purposes or land drainage is impaired, or that drainage work is otherwise damaged, the impairment or damage must be made good by the undertaker as soon as reasonably practicable to the reasonable satisfaction of Trent Valley Internal Drainage Board and, if the undertaker fails to do so, Trent Valley Internal Drainage Board may make good the impairment or damage and recover from the undertaker the expense reasonably incurred by it in doing so.

294

If by reason of construction of the specified work Trent Valley Internal Drainage Board’s access to land drainage infrastructure, flood defences or equipment maintained for flood defence purposes is materially obstructed, the undertaker must provide such alternative means of access that will allow Trent Valley Internal Drainage Board to maintain the land drainage infrastructure, flood defence or use the equipment no less effectively than was possible before the obstruction within 24 hours of or as soon as reasonably practicable after the undertaker becoming aware of such obstruction.

295

The undertaker must indemnify Trent Valley Internal Drainage Board in respect of reasonable costs, charges and expenses which the relevant drainage authority may reasonably incur by reason of—

• (a) the review, examination or approval of plans under this Part of this Schedule;

• (b) the inspection of the proposed location of the specified work or any protective works and the construction of the specified work or any protective works required by Trent Valley Internal Drainage Board under this Part of this Schedule; and

• (c) the carrying out of any surveys or tests by Trent Valley Internal Drainage Board which are reasonably required in connection with the construction of the specified works and any protective work.

296

• (1) Without limiting the other provisions of this Part of this Schedule, the undertaker must indemnify Trent Valley Internal Drainage Board in respect of all costs and losses, liabilities, proceedings, damages, expenses, claims and demands not otherwise provided for in this Schedule which may be made or taken against, recovered from or incurred by Trent Valley Internal Drainage Board by reason of, or arising out of—

• (a) any damage to any drainage work so as to impair its efficiency for the purposes of flood defence;

• (b) any raising or lowering of the water table in land adjoining the authorised development or any sewers, drains and watercourse; or

• (c) any flooding or increased flooding of any such land

297

Any dispute arising between the undertaker and Trent Valley Internal Drainage Board under this Part of this Schedule, if the parties agree, is to be determined by arbitration under article 43 (arbitration).

SCHEDULE 16 — PROCEDURE FOR DISCHARGE OF REQUIREMENTS

Interpretation

1

In this Schedule—

• “discharge” means any consent, agreement or approval required by— a requirement; a document referred to by a requirement; or a document that has been approved pursuant to a requirement;

• “requirement consultee” means any body or authority named in a requirement as a body to be consulted by the relevant planning authority in discharging that requirement; and

• “start date” means the date of the notification given by the Secretary of State under paragraph 4(2)(c).

Applications made under requirement

2

• (1) Where an application has been made to the relevant planning authority for any consent, agreement or approval required by a requirement, the undertaker must also submit a copy of that application to any requirement consultee.

• (2) Where an application has been made to the relevant planning authority for any consent agreement or approval required by a requirement the relevant planning authority must give notice to the undertaker of its decision on the application within a period of ten weeks beginning with the later of—

• (a) the day immediately following that on which the application is received by the authority;

• (b) the day immediately following that on which further information has been supplied by the undertaker under paragraph 3; or

• (c) such longer period that is agreed in writing by the undertaker and the relevant planning authority.

• (3) Subject to paragraph 4, in the event that the relevant planning authority does not determine an application within the period set out in sub-paragraph (2), the relevant planning authority is to be taken to have granted all parts of the application (without any condition or qualification) at the end of that period.

• (4) Any application made to the relevant planning authority pursuant to sub-paragraph (2) must include a statement to confirm whether it is likely that the subject matter of the application will give rise to any materially new or materially different environmental effects compared to those in the environmental statement and if it will then it must be accompanied by information setting out what those effects are.

• (5) Where an application has been made to the relevant planning authority for any consent, agreement or approval required by a requirement included in this Order and the relevant planning authority does not determine the application within the period set out in sub-paragraph (2) and is accompanied by a report pursuant to sub-paragraph (4) which states that the subject matter of such application is likely to give rise to any materially new or materially different environmental effects compared to those in the environmental statement then the application is to be taken to have been refused by the relevant planning authority at the end of that period.

Further information and consultation

3

• (1) In relation to any application to which this Schedule applies, the relevant planning authority may request such reasonable further information from the undertaker as is necessary to enable it to consider the application.

• (2) In the event that the relevant planning authority considers such further information to be necessary and the provision governing or requiring the application does not specify that consultation with a requirement consultee is required, the relevant planning authority must, within 10 working days of receipt of the application, notify the undertaker in writing specifying the further information required.

• (3) If the provision governing or requiring the application specifies that consultation with a requirement consultee is required, the relevant planning authority must issue the consultation to the requirement consultee within five working days of receipt of the application, and must notify the undertaker in writing specifying any further information the relevant planning authority considers necessary or that is requested by the requirement consultee within five working days of receipt of such a request and in any event within 15 working days of receipt of the application (or such other period as is agreed in writing between the undertaker and the relevant planning authority).

• (4) In the event that the relevant planning authority does not give notification as specified in sub-paragraph (2) or (3) it is deemed to have sufficient information to consider the application and is not thereafter entitled to request further information without the prior agreement of the undertaker.

• (5) Where further information is requested under this paragraph in relation to part only of an application, that part is to be treated as separate from the remainder of the application for the purposes of calculating time periods in paragraph 2 and paragraph 3.

Appeals

4

• (1) The undertaker may appeal in the event that—

• (a) the relevant planning authority refuses an application for any consent, agreement or approval required by a requirement included in this Order or grants it subject to conditions;

• (b) the relevant planning authority is deemed to have refused an application pursuant to paragraph 2(5);

• (c) on receipt of a request for further information pursuant to paragraph 3 the undertaker considers that either the whole or part of the specified information requested by the relevant planning authority is not necessary for consideration of the application; or

• (d) on receipt of any further information requested, the relevant planning authority notifies the undertaker that the information provided is inadequate and requests additional information which the undertaker considers is not necessary for consideration of the application.

• (2) The steps to be followed in the appeal process are as follows—

• (a) any appeal by the undertaker must be made within 42 days of the date of the notice of the decision or determination, or (where no determination has been made) the expiry of the time period set out in paragraph 2(2), giving rise to the appeal referred to in sub-paragraph (1);

• (b) the undertaker must submit the appeal documentation to the Secretary of State and must on the same day provide copies of the appeal documentation to the relevant planning authority and any requirement consultee;

• (c) the Secretary of State must appoint a person to determine the appeal as soon as reasonably practicable and must forthwith notify the appeal parties of the identity of the appointed person and the address to which all correspondence for the appointed person’s attention should be sent;

• (d) the relevant planning authority and any requirement consultee must submit written representations to the appointed person in respect of the appeal within 10 working days of the start date and must ensure that copies of their written representations are sent to each other and to the undertaker on the day on which they are submitted to the appointed person;

• (e) the undertaker may make any counter-submissions to the appointed person within 10 working days of receipt of written representations pursuant to sub-paragraph (d);

• (f) the appointed person must make their decision and notify it to the appeal parties, with reasons, as soon as reasonably practicable and in any event within 30 working days of the deadline for the receipt of counter-submissions pursuant to sub-paragraph (e); and

• (g) the appointment of the person pursuant to sub-paragraph (c) may be undertaken by a person appointed by the Secretary of State for this purpose instead of by the Secretary of State.

• (3) In the event that the appointed person considers that further information is necessary to enable the appointed person to consider the appeal they must, within five working days of the appointed person’s appointment, notify the appeal parties in writing specifying the further information required.

• (4) Any further information required pursuant to sub-paragraph (3) must be provided by the relevant party to the appointed person and the other appeal parties on the date specified by the appointed person (the “specified date”), and the appointed person must notify the appeal parties of the revised timetable for the appeal on or before that day. The revised timetable for the appeal must require submission of written representations to the appointed person within 10 working days of the specified date, but otherwise the process and time limits set out in sub-paragraphs (d) to (f) of sub-paragraph (2) apply.

• (5) The appointed person may—

• (a) allow or dismiss the appeal; or

• (b) reverse or vary any part of the decision of the relevant planning authority (whether the appeal relates to that part of it or not),

and may deal with the application as if it had been made to them in the first instance.

• (6) The appointed person may proceed to a decision on an appeal taking into account only such written representations as have been sent within the relevant time limits and in the sole discretion of the appointed person such written representations as have been sent outside of the relevant time limits.

• (7) The appointed person may proceed to a decision even though no written representations have been made within the relevant time limits, if it appears to them that there is sufficient material to enable a decision to be made on the merits of the case.

• (8) The decision of the appointed person on an appeal is to be final and binding on the parties, unless proceedings are brought by a claim for judicial review.

• (9) If an approval is given by the appointed person pursuant to this Schedule, it is to be deemed to be an approval for the purpose of Schedule 2 (requirements) as if it had been given by the relevant planning authority. The relevant planning authority may confirm any determination given by the appointed person in identical form in writing but a failure to give such confirmation (or a failure to give it in identical form) is not to be taken to affect or invalidate the effect of the appointed person’s determination.

• (10) Save where a direction is given pursuant to sub-paragraph (11) requiring the costs of the appointed person to be paid by the relevant planning authority, the reasonable costs of the appointed person must be met by the undertaker.

• (11) On application by the relevant planning authority or the undertaker, the appointed person may give directions as to the costs of the appeal parties and as to the parties by whom the costs of the appeal are to be paid. In considering whether to make any such direction and the terms on which it is to be made, the appointed person must have regard to advice on planning appeals and award costs published in Planning Practice Guidance: Appeals (March 2014) or any circular or guidance which may from time to time replace it.

Fees

5

• (1) Where an application is made to the relevant planning authority for a discharge, a fee is to apply and must be paid to the relevant planning authority for each application as follows—

Application	Fee payable
First application for the discharge of each of the requirements 5 (Detailed design approval), 6 (Battery safety management), 7 (Landscape and ecological management plan), 8 (Biodiversity net gain), 10 (Surface and foul water drainage), 12 (Construction environmental management plan), 13 (Operational environmental management plan), 14 (Waste management plan) 15 (Construction traffic management plan), 17 (Public rights of way), 19 (Soils management), and 21 (Decommissioning and restoration).	£2,535
Each subsequent application for the discharge of each of the requirements listed in Row 1.	£578
Any application under requirement 5 (Detailed design approval) in respect of the requirements listed in Row 1.	£578
Any application for the discharge of any other requirements not listed in Row 1.	£145
Any application under requirement 3 (Approved details and amendments to them) in respect of requirements not listed in not listed in Row 1.	£145
Any approval required by a document referred to by any requirement or a document approved pursuant to any requirement.	£145

• (2) Where an application under sub-paragraph (1) is made and a fee payable on or after 1 April 2025, then Regulation 18A of the Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications, Deemed Applications, Requests and Site Visits) (England) Regulations 2012⁸³ (as amended by the Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications, Deemed Applications, Requests and Site Visits (England) Amendment Regulations 2023) will apply as modified by this Order, so that “the relevant amount” means the fee payable under this sub paragraph (2)(a), 2(b) or 2(c) above.

• (3) Any fee paid under this Schedule must be refunded to the undertaker within four weeks of—

• (a) the application being rejected as invalidly made; or

• (b) the relevant planning authority failing to determine the application within the relevant period in paragraph 2(2) unless—

• (i) within that period the undertaker agrees, in writing, that the fee is to be retained by the relevant planning authority and credited in respect of a future application; or

• (ii) a longer period of time for determining the application has been agreed pursuant to paragraph 2(2) of this Schedule, as applicable.

Signed

Signed by authority of the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero

David Wagstaff — Head of Energy Infrastructure Development — Department for Energy Security and Net Zero — 14th October 2025

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Order)

EXPLANATORY NOTE

This Order authorises Tillbridge Solar Limited (referred to in this Order as the undertaker) to construct, operate, maintain and decommission a ground mounted solar photovoltaic generating station with a gross electrical output capacity of over 50 megawatts and associated development. The Order would permit the undertaker to acquire, compulsorily or by agreement, land and rights in land and to use land for this purpose.

A copy of the Order plans and the book of reference mentioned in the Order and certified in accordance with article 41 (certification of plans and documents, etc.) of this Order may be inspected free of charge during working hours at Lincolnshire County Council, County Offices, Newland, Lincoln, LN1 1YL.

Footnotes