The Peartree Hill Solar Farm Order 2026 is now in force, giving the green light to a major solar and battery scheme on land east of Beverley. The statutory instrument, made on 2 July 2026 and effective from 23 July 2026, grants development consent to RWE Renewables UK Solar and Storage Limited for a project the Government classes as nationally significant infrastructure. That dry Whitehall wording matters locally because it moves the scheme out of planning debate and into law. For communities east of Beverley, this is no longer just a question of whether panels might appear in fields. It is a live consent covering energy generation, grid connection, access routes, temporary compounds and long-term management of the land around the site.

According to the Order published on legislation.gov.uk, the scheme includes a ground-mounted solar photovoltaic generating station with a gross output above 50 megawatts, spread across several land parcels identified as Land Areas B to F. It also includes a battery energy storage system, two onsite substations, security infrastructure, internal tracks, screening and habitat works, drainage features and new permissive paths. The grid connection is a major part of the project. The consent covers cabling up to 132 kilovolts and works within the National Grid Creyke Beck substation so electricity from Peartree Hill can be exported into the wider network. In plain English, this is not simply a field of panels. It is a full energy site, with the cables, compounds, control buildings and access works needed to run at scale.

Where the Order becomes most serious for landowners is in the powers it gives RWE over land and rights. The company can compulsorily acquire land needed for the project, take new rights over land, impose restrictive covenants, acquire subsoil without always taking the full surface and take temporary possession of some plots during construction and maintenance. The document also deals directly with special category land at Figham Common. The Secretary of State says the common land affected by new rights or restrictive covenants will be no less advantageous than before to those with rights there and to the public. That is the sort of sentence people around Beverley will read twice. The Order does contain a safeguard requiring a guarantee or other approved security to be in place before compensation-related powers are exercised, but the reach of the consent is still broad and very real on the ground.

Roads, tracks and footpaths run right through the legal detail. The Order allows temporary closures, diversions and restrictions on streets and public rights of way, the creation or improvement of accesses, the use of private roads, temporary traffic signals and banksperson control, speed restrictions and other traffic measures needed during construction. For walkers, riders, nearby households and farm businesses, that matters as much as the panels themselves. The scheme includes permissive paths and a rights of way management plan, but it also gives the undertaker room to close routes for reasonable periods while works are carried out. Street authorities must be consulted or asked for consent in many cases, and anyone suffering loss from the suspension of a private right can seek compensation, yet the day-to-day impact will still be felt first in lanes, gateways and crossings rather than in Westminster.

The consent is not a blank cheque. Before major parts of the project can begin, East Riding of Yorkshire Council as local planning authority must sign off detailed submissions on layout, access, drainage and appearance. Construction environmental plans, construction traffic plans, soil management, site waste arrangements, operational noise controls and archaeological investigation all have to be approved in writing. Battery storage is singled out for extra scrutiny. Any part of the scheme containing Work No. 2 cannot start until a battery safety management plan has been approved after consultation with Humberside Fire and Rescue Service and the Environment Agency. Traffic planning must also be prepared with Hull City Council and National Highways in the room where their interests are affected. For a project of this size, that level of checking is the bare minimum.

One of the more eye-catching sections in the Order is the scale of the biodiversity promise written into it. The LEMP must show how the scheme will deliver at least 55 per cent biodiversity net gain for area habitat units, 35 per cent for hedgerow units and 10 per cent for watercourse units using Defra's statutory metric. There are also controls around hedgerow removal, tree works, planting, screening and drainage. The project is also time-limited. It must begin within five years of the Order coming into force, which takes the deadline to July 2031, and decommissioning for each part must start no later than 40 years after final commissioning unless another agreement is reached. A decommissioning environmental management plan will have to be approved before the site is taken apart, which at least puts an end point on paper from the outset.

The Order shows just how crowded and strategic this patch of East Yorkshire has become. It contains detailed protections for National Gas, National Grid Electricity Transmission, Northern Powergrid, Network Rail, drainage bodies and the Environment Agency, and it requires RWE to work around other solar schemes including Field House Solar Farm and Carr Farm Solar Farm where access or construction timing could clash. For Beverley and the communities to the east, the argument now shifts. The Secretary of State has made the legal decision. What comes next is the harder local work: how access is handled, how farmland and commons are treated, how traffic is managed, whether biodiversity promises are actually met and whether compensation and consultation happen properly when works begin. The certified plans can be inspected at Beverley Library, and that is where many of the small-print details behind this big decision will now be tested against local reality.