The Stonestreet Green Solar Order 2025

Made: 22nd October 2025

Coming into force: 13th November 2025

The Secretary of State, in exercise of the powers conferred by sections 114[^f00007], 115[^f00008], 120[^f00009], 122[^f00010], 123[^f00011] and 140 of the 2008 Act, makes the following Order.

PART 1 — Preliminary

Citation and commencement

1

This Order may be cited as the Stonestreet Green Solar Order 2025 and comes into force on 13th November 2025.

Interpretation

2

• (1) In this Order, unless the context requires otherwise—

• “the 1961 Act” means the Land Compensation Act 1961[^f00012];

• “the 1965 Act” means the Compulsory Purchase Act 1965[^f00013];

• “the 1980 Act” means the Highways Act 1980[^f00014];

• “the 1981 Act” means the Compulsory Purchase (Vesting Declarations) Act 1981[^f00015];

• “the 1984 Act” means the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984[^f00016];

• “the 1989 Act” means the Electricity Act 1989[^f00017];

• “the 1990 Act” means the Town and Country Planning Act 1990[^f00018];

• “the 1991 Act” means the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991[^f00019];

• “the 2008 Act” means the Planning Act 2008[^f00020];

• “the 2015 Regulations” means the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015[^f00021];

• “address” includes any number or address used for the purposes of electronic transmission;

• “AMS” means the archaeological management strategy identified in the table in Schedule 14 (documents and plans to be certified) and which is certified as such by the Secretary of State for the purposes of this Order in accordance with article 41 (certification of plans, etc.);

• “apparatus” has the same meaning as in Part 3 (street works in England and Wales) of the 1991 Act except that, unless otherwise provided, it further includes pipelines (and parts of them), aerial markers, cathodic protection test posts, field boundary markers, transformer rectifier kiosks, electricity cables, telecommunications equipment and electricity cabinets;

• “authorised development” means the development and associated development described in Schedule 1 (authorised development) and any other development authorised by this Order which is development within the meaning of section 32 (meaning of “development”) of the 2008 Act;

• “BESS” means a battery energy storage system used for the storage of electrical energy, consisting of containerised units distributed across the Order limits and, where installed, located as part of an inverter station;

• “book of reference” means the document of that name identified in the table in Schedule 14 (documents and plans to be certified) and which is certified as such by the Secretary of State for the purposes of this Order in accordance with article 41 (certification of plans, etc.);

• “bridleway” has the same meaning as in section 329 (further provision as to interpretation) of the 1980 Act;

• “BSMP” means a battery safety management plan;

• “building” includes any structure or erection or any part of a building, structure or erection;

• “business day” means a day other than Saturday or Sunday which is not Christmas Day, Good Friday or an English public holiday or bank holiday under section 1 of the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971[^f00022];

• “cable works” means works to place, retain and maintain underground electrical cables;

• “carriageway” has the meaning given in section 329 (further provision as to interpretation) of the 1980 Act;

• “CCTV” means a closed circuit television security system;

• “CEMP” means a construction environmental management plan;

• “commence” means to carry out any material operation, as defined in section 155 (when development begins) of the 2008 Act, forming part of the authorised development other than site enabling works (except where stated to the contrary), and “commencement” and “commenced” must be construed accordingly;

• “crown land plans” means the document of that name identified in the table in Schedule 14 (documents and plans to be certified) and which is certified as such by the Secretary of State for the purposes of this Order in accordance with article 41 (certification of plans, etc.);

• “CTMP” means a construction traffic management plan;

• “cycle track” has the same meaning as in section 329 (further provision as to interpretation) of the 1980 Act;

• “cycleway” means a way constituting or comprised in a highway, being a way over which the public have the following, but no other, rights of way, that is to say, a right of way on pedal cycles (other than pedal cycles which are motor vehicles within the meaning of the Road Traffic Act 1988[^f00023])with a right of way on foot and a right of way on horseback or leading a horse;

• “DC” means direct current;

• “DC-DC converters” means electrical infrastructure to allow communication and transmission of electricity between the inverters and the BESS;

• “DEMP” means a decommissioning environmental management plan;

• “design principles” means the document of that name identified in the table at Schedule 14 (documents and plans to be certified) and which is certified as such by the Secretary of State for the purposes of this Order in accordance with article 41 (certification of plans, etc.);

• “DTMP” means a decommissioning traffic management plan;

• “electrical cables” means—cables of differing types and voltages installed for the purposes of conducting electricity, auxiliary cables, cables connecting to DC boxes, earthing cables and optical fibre cables; andworks associated with cable laying including jointing pits, hardstanding adjoining the jointing pits, combiner boxes, fibre bays, cable ducts, cable protection, joint protection, manholes, kiosks, marker posts, underground cable marker, tiles and tape, send and receive pits for horizontal directional drilling, trenching, lighting, and a pit or container to capture fluids associated with drilling;

• “electronic transmission” means a communication transmitted—by means of an electronic communications network; orby other means but while in electronic form;

• “environmental statement” means the document of that name identified in the table in Schedule 14 (documents and plans to be certified) and which is certified as such by the Secretary of State for the purposes of this Order in accordance with article 41 (certification of plans, etc.);

• “EPL 001 Limited” means EPL 001 Limited, company number 12444050, whose registered office is at 2nd Floor, Regis House, 45 King William Street, London EC4R 9AN;

• “first export date” means the date on which the authorised development first exports electricity to the national grid on a commercial basis, but excluding the generation of electricity during commissioning and testing;

• “footway” and “footpath” have the same meanings as in section 329 (further provision as to interpretation) of the 1980 Act;

• “inverter” means electrical equipment required to convert DC power to alternating current power;

• “intermediate substations” means substations (other than the project substation) that aggregate the output of a number of inverter stations prior to transmission to the project substation;

• “inverter station” means electrical infrastructure located within a bunded enclosure and comprising inverters, transformers and switchgear (either as separate units or containerised) and “inverter stations” shall be interpreted accordingly;

• “land plans” means the document of that name identified in the table in Schedule 14 (documents and plans to be certified) and which is certified as such by the Secretary of State for the purposes of this Order in accordance with article 41 (certification of plans, etc.);

• “LEMP” means a landscape and ecological management plan;

• “local planning authority” means the local planning authority for the borough of Ashford;

• “maintain” includes inspect, upkeep, repair, refurbish, adjust, alter, remove, reconstruct and replace in relation to the authorised development, provided such works do not give rise to any materially new or materially different environmental effects to those identified in the environmental statement; and any derivative of “maintain” must be construed accordingly;

• “mounting structure” means a frame or rack used to host the solar PV panels, and “mounting structures” shall be interpreted accordingly;

• “National Grid” means National Grid Electricity Transmission plc, company number 02366977, whose registered office is at 1-3 Strand, London, WC2N 5EH, being a licence holder within the meaning of Part 1 of the 1989 Act;

• “Network Rail” means Network Rail Infrastructure Limited (company number 02904587, whose registered office is at Waterloo General Office, London, SE1 8SW) and any associated company of Network Rail Infrastructure Limited which holds property for railway purposes, and for the purpose of this definition “associated company” means any company which is (within the meaning of section 1159 of the Companies Act 2006) the holding company of Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, a subsidiary of Network Rail Infrastructure Limited or another subsidiary of the holding company of Network Rail Infrastructure Limited and any successor to Network Rail Infrastructure Limited’s railway undertaking;

• “OMP” means an operational management plan;

• “ONMMS” means an operational noise mitigation and monitoring scheme;

• “Order land” means the land shown on the land plans and crown land plans which is within the limits of land to be acquired or used and described in the book of reference;

• “Order limits” means the limits shown on the land plans, crown land plans and works plans within which the authorised development may be carried out and land acquired or used;

• “OSWDS” means an operational surface water drainage strategy;

• “outline BSMP” means the outline battery safety management plan identified in the table in Schedule 14 (documents and plans to be certified) and which is certified by the Secretary of State as the for the purposes of this Order in accordance with article 41 (certification of plans, etc.);

• “outline CEMP” means the outline construction environmental management plan identified in the table in Schedule 14 (documents and plans to be certified) and which is certified by the Secretary of State as the outline CEMP for the purposes of this Order in accordance with article 41 (certification of plans, etc.);

• “outline CTMP” means the outline construction traffic management plan identified in the table in Schedule 14 (documents and plans to be certified) and which is certified by the Secretary of State as the outline CTMP for the purposes of this Order in accordance with article 41 (certification of plans, etc.);

• “outline DEMP” means the document certified by the Secretary of State as the outline decommissioning environmental management plan for the purposes of this Order in accordance with article 41 (certification of plans, etc.);

• “outline DTMP” means the outline decommissioning traffic management plan identified in the table in Schedule 14 (documents and plans to be certified) and which is certified by the Secretary of State as the outline DTMP for the purposes of this Order in accordance with article 41 (certification of plans, etc.);

• “outline LEMP” means the outline landscape and ecological management plan identified in the table in Schedule 14 (documents and plans to be certified) and which is certified by the Secretary of State as the outline LEMP for the purposes of this Order in accordance with article 41 (certification of plans, etc.);

• “outline OMP” means the outline operational management plan identified in the table in Schedule 14 (documents and plans to be certified) and which is certified by the Secretary of State as the outline OMP for the purposes of this Order in accordance with article 41 (certification of plans, etc.);

• “outline OSWDS” means the outline operational surface water drainage strategy identified in the table in Schedule 14 (documents and plans to be certified) and which is certified by the Secretary of State as the outline OSWDS for the purposes of this Order in accordance with article 41 (certification of plans, etc.);

• “outline RoWAS” means the outline rights of way and access strategy identified in the table in Schedule 14 (documents and plans to be certified) and which is certified by the Secretary of State as the outline RoWAS for the purposes of this Order in accordance with article 41 (certification of plans, etc.);

• “permissive paths” means existing access tracks providing restricted public access within the Order limits;

• “phase” means a defined section or part of the authorised development, the extent of which is shown in a scheme submitted to and approved by the local planning authority under requirement 3 (phases of authorised development) in Part 1 of Schedule 2 (requirements);

• “project substation” means the main compound containing electrical equipment required to switch, transform, convert electricity and provide reactive power compensation with welfare facilities, means of access and other associated facilities;

• “requirement” means a requirement set out in Part 1 of Schedule 2 (requirements), and a reference to a numbered requirement is a reference to the requirement set out in the paragraph of that Part of that Schedule with the same number;

• “RoWAS” means a rights of way and access strategy;

• “Sellindge Substation” means the existing substation at Sellindge, Church Lane, Aldington, Ashford TN25 6AF, owned by National Grid and operated by UK Power Networks;

• “site enabling works” means operations consisting of—pre-construction surveys and/or monitoring;site clearance and/or vegetation works;advanced planting works;archaeological investigations;environmental surveys;investigations for the purpose of assessing ground conditions;remedial work in respect of contamination or other adverse ground conditions;diversion and laying of services;erection of any temporary means of enclosure; andthe temporary display of site notices and/or advertisements;

• “solar PV panel” means a solar photovoltaic panel designed to convert solar irradiance to DC electrical energy fitted to a mounting structure, and “solar PV panels” shall be interpreted accordingly;

• “statutory nature conservation body” means the appropriate nature conservation body as defined in regulation 5 of the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017[^f00024];

• “statutory undertaker” means any person falling within section 127(8) (statutory undertakers’ land) or section 138(4A) (extinguishment of rights, and removal of apparatus, of statutory undertakers etc.) of the 2008 Act and includes a public communications provider as defined in section 151(1) (interpretation of chapter 1) of the Communications Act 2003[^f00025] and an operator of an electronic communications code network as defined in paragraph 1(1) of Schedule 17 (minor and consequential amendments) to that Act;

• “street” means a street within the meaning of section 48 (streets, street works and undertakers) of the 1991 Act, together with land on the verge of a street or between two carriageways, and includes any footpath and part of a street;

• “street authority”, in relation to a street, has the same meaning as in Part 3 of the 1991 Act[^f00026];

• “street works” means the works listed in article 10(1) (street works and temporary closure of streets and private means of access);

• “streets, rights of way and access plans” means the document of that name identified in the table in Schedule 14 (documents and plans to be certified) and which is certified as such by the Secretary of State for the purposes of this Order in accordance with article 41 (certification of plans, etc.);

• “subsoil” means any stratum of land that is below the surface of the ground;

• “switchgear” means a set of electrical disconnect switches, fuses or circuit breakers used to control, protect and isolate electrical equipment;

• “traffic authority” has the same meaning as in section 121A (traffic authorities) of the 1984 Act[^f00027];

• “traffic regulations measures plans” means the document of that name identified in the table in Schedule 14 (documents and plans to be certified) and which is certified as such by the Secretary of State for the purposes of this Order in accordance with article 41 (certification of plans, etc.);

• “transformer” means electrical infrastructure used to transform electricity to a different voltage;

• “UK Power Networks” means UK Power Networks Holdings Limited, company number 07290590, whose registered office is at Newington House, 237 Southwark Bridge Road, London, SE1 6NP and all wholly-owned subsidiary companies of UK Power Networks Holdings Limited;

• “undertaker” means EPL 001 Limited or any person who for the time being has the benefit of this Order in accordance with articles 6 (benefit of the Order) and 7 (consent to transfer benefit of the Order);

• “vegetation removal plan” means the document of that name identified in the table in Schedule 14 (documents and plans to be certified) and which is certified as such by the Secretary of State for the purposes of this Order in accordance with article 41 (certification of plans, etc.);

• “watercourse” includes all rivers, streams, creeks, ditches, drains, canals, cuts, culverts, dykes, sluices, sewers and passages through which water flows except a public sewer or drain;

• “work” means a work set out in Schedule 1 (authorised development);