Byers Gill Solar Order corrections from 27 Oct 2025

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has made The Byers Gill Solar (Correction) Order 2025. Signed on 24 October 2025, it takes effect on 27 October 2025. This is a routine legal fix to the wording of the existing development consent so everyone-from councils to contractors-works from the same text.

If you’re new to this, here’s the simple version. Under Schedule 4 of the Planning Act 2008, the Secretary of State can correct a decision document (like a development consent order) if there’s a correctable error and the request arrives within the legal time window. Relevant local planning authorities must be told, and-because a DCO is itself a statutory instrument-the correction has to be made by another statutory instrument. The original decision stays in force, and from the date stated in the correction order the text is treated as corrected.

So what changed here? The short schedule fixes cross‑references in Articles 10, 13 and 14, adds missing brackets and tidies numbering in the ‘requirements’ so readers land on the right paragraphs first time. It also adjusts labelling around public rights of way-for example, switching ‘stopped up’ to ‘closed’ in Article 14(1), while the title to Schedule 5 uses the standard ‘permanently stopped up’ wording-and corrects a reference to the arbitration paragraph in Schedule 11. These are housekeeping edits to prevent confusion later in delivery.

Why fuss over a word like ‘stopped up’? In highway law it signals a permanent legal ending of a route, whereas ‘closed’ is sometimes used as a label in plans or headings. Using the right term in the right place helps highway authorities, landowners and site teams interpret the consent consistently. That’s what these tweaks are doing.

What doesn’t change is the project itself. Byers Gill remains a nationally significant solar and battery scheme with a minimum output of 180 MW, granted development consent by the Secretary of State. For context, the original Byers Gill Solar Order was made on 23 July 2025 and came into force on 14 August 2025; the correction does not reopen that decision, it simply updates the wording that sits behind it. Under the law, the decision continues to stand and is treated as corrected from 27 October 2025.

If you’re studying planning, the timeline here is a helpful case study. RWE submitted the application on 9 February 2024, the Planning Inspectorate accepted it on 8 March 2024, and after examination the Secretary of State granted consent on 23 July 2025. The 24 October 2025 correction is about clarity, not a policy U‑turn.

Where is it and who’s involved? The site sits between Darlington and Stockton‑on‑Tees, overlapping the areas of Darlington Borough Council, Stockton‑on‑Tees Borough Council and Durham County Council, across roughly 490 hectares. RWE describes the co‑located solar and battery project as capable of powering around 70,000 homes when operational.

If you want to check the changes yourself, read the correction order’s schedule alongside the original order on legislation.gov.uk. Find the numbered articles and schedules listed in the schedule, then match the substitutions. It’s a good media‑literacy habit: go back to the primary source and see exactly what’s changed.

For transparency, note who signed. The order is signed by John Wheadon, Head of Energy Infrastructure Planning and Innovation at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, dated 24 October 2025. We include names and dates so you can see the chain of responsibility in infrastructure planning.