'Responsible development in West Lindsey' was the line local councillors used when Tillbridge Solar was being examined. Now the scheme is back in the legal paperwork, with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero confirming that the Tillbridge Solar (Correction) Order 2026 was made on 29 April 2026 and came into force on 30 April 2026. (west-lindsey.gov.uk)

For residents in and around Glentworth, Hemswell and Springthorpe, the main point is that this is not a fresh planning yes. The Planning Inspectorate says the application was submitted on 10 April 2024, accepted on 8 May 2024 and recommended to ministers on 14 July 2025 before consent was granted on 14 October 2025; the Government’s April 2026 notice says the latest move is to make corrections to that 2025 order. In practical terms, it is a legal clean-up of the original consent rather than a new verdict on whether the scheme should be built. (gov.uk)

West Lindsey District Council says the site sits roughly five kilometres east of Gainsborough, between the villages of Glentworth, Hemswell and Springthorpe, across about 1,400 hectares. The electricity would connect into National Grid’s Cottam substation in Bassetlaw, so although the panels are in Lincolnshire, the cabling and grid story runs over the county line into Nottinghamshire. (west-lindsey.gov.uk)

Developer material describes Tillbridge as a 500MW scheme with enough output to supply nearly 300,000 homes, and says it is being brought forward by Tillbridge Solar Limited as a joint venture between Tribus Clean Energy and Recurrent Energy. The Planning Inspectorate’s decision notice says the consent also covers associated works including battery storage and grid connection infrastructure. (tillbridgesolar.com)

That scale is why the row around Tillbridge never felt like dry planning law on its own. West Lindsey formally objected during the examination, warning about harm to the area’s character, the visual effect on open countryside and the knock-on effect on nearby communities, while also making clear that the final call sat with the Secretary of State under the nationally significant infrastructure process rather than the district council. (west-lindsey.gov.uk)

Bassetlaw has long treated Tillbridge as a cross-border project because the cable route and grid connection head to the former Cottam Power Station site. West Lindsey also pointed out during the hearings that Tillbridge was one of five nationally significant solar schemes being proposed in the district, which helps explain why every tweak to the legal order still matters locally. (bassetlaw.gov.uk)

The correction order will not settle the wider argument over large solar developments in rural Lincolnshire. What it does show, though, is how these projects keep moving after the headline decision: approval in October 2025, corrections in April 2026, and communities still reading the fine print months later while the route from West Lindsey to Cottam stays firmly on the map. (gov.uk)