‘The wrong location for an incinerator’ was how council leader Rob Waltham described the Flixborough scheme after ministers signed it off last year. This week’s move is not a fresh ruling on that row. It is a correction order, in force from 15 May, fixing drafting errors in the 2025 consent that already cleared the North Lincolnshire Green Energy Park. (northlincs.gov.uk) That may sound like legal housekeeping, but people living alongside nationally significant projects know how much can turn on a line of text. When Whitehall decisions land in places like North Lincolnshire, the small print matters.

The change sits in article 41 of the original order, the part headed ‘Removal of human remains’. The supplied statutory instrument text shows the correction adds missing wording so that, where remains are removed under the order, certain provisions of the Burial Act 1853 and Burial Act 1857 do not apply. It is a narrow fix, but on a scheme of this size the wording still matters. (legislation.gov.uk) Just as important is what it does not do. This is not a rehearing of the wider scheme and it does not sweep away last year’s consent. It is an amendment to the legal order already in place.

The original order, which came into force on 4 April 2025, authorises an energy-from-waste generating station at Stather Road, Flixborough, Scunthorpe. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero says the approved project covers processing up to 760,000 tonnes of refuse derived fuel a year, generation up to 95MW and a carbon capture, usage and storage element handling up to 54,387 tonnes of CO2 per annum. (legislation.gov.uk) According to the Planning Inspectorate, the application was submitted on 31 May 2022, accepted for examination on 27 June 2022 and sent to ministers with a recommendation on 15 August 2023 after a six-month examination in which residents, councils and other interested parties could take part. (gov.uk)

That explains why even a technical correction matters beyond one borough. The request was circulated to North Lincolnshire Council and a string of neighbouring planning authorities, from Doncaster and Bassetlaw to North East Lincolnshire and West Lindsey, underlining how projects on the Humber and Trent fringe reach across boundaries. North Lincolnshire Council said in March 2025 that the scheme would bring extra traffic and waste from other parts of the country. Ministers granted the consent anyway, and the local argument never really went away. (northlincs.gov.uk)

The promoter has told a very different story. On its own project website, North Lincolnshire Green Energy Park says the development could generate enough power for 221,000 homes a year, create up to 257 local jobs and support 100 apprenticeships. For a patch of the south Humber bank still making the case for modern industry, those claims carry weight. (northlincolnshiregreenenergypark.co.uk) That is the local split in plain terms: one side talks about skilled work, power and industrial renewal; the other talks about lorry movements, imported waste and the pressure placed on communities that are so often asked to host big national schemes. (northlincolnshiregreenenergypark.co.uk)

What the correction cannot answer is the question residents and local firms are likely to ask first: when, if ever, does this become a live construction job rather than another legal file? Companies House records show North Lincolnshire Green Energy Park Limited entered administration on 23 December 2025. That does not cancel the consent, but it does raise obvious questions about delivery and timetable. (find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk) So this latest order matters, but mostly as a reminder of where the real story now sits. The legal wording has been tightened up. The harder part for Flixborough, Scunthorpe and the councils around them is whether the promised jobs, infrastructure and energy ambitions ever move from paper into something people can see on the ground.