High Court refuses Springwell challenge: Labour’s solar farm goes ahead
The Reform UK-led County Council’s legal challenge has been turned away, leaving Labour’s decision to cover around 3,100 acres of Lincolnshire farmland with solar panels in place.
On Wednesday 11 November 2026, the High Court refused to let the challenge to Springwell Solar Farm go to a full hearing. The judicial review was brought by Reform UK-led Lincolnshire County Council, alongside North Kesteven District Council, to challenge the Government’s decision to approve one of the biggest solar farms in the country on farmland near Scopwick, Metheringham and Navenby.
This is Labour’s decision
Let there be no doubt about who is responsible. Springwell was approved in April 2026 by Labour’s Energy Secretary, Ed Miliband, overruling the objections of the county council, the district council and thousands of local residents. It is now the biggest solar farm currently approved anywhere in the UK, the equivalent of around 1,700 football pitches of Lincolnshire countryside.
And the Conservatives cannot wash their hands of it either. It was a Conservative government that wrote net zero into law in 2019, legally binding the country to net zero by 2050 without a single vote of the British people. Those Tory net zero laws are the reason schemes like Springwell keep coming, and Labour has used them to sign off solar farm after solar farm on our farmland. The Tories built the road; Labour is driving down it as fast as it can.
What the councils argued
The County Council and the District Council argued that ministers had failed to properly consider the impact on our rural villages and landscapes, and the combined impact of Springwell alongside the other huge solar schemes already planned across North Kesteven. The court has now decided that the case will not go any further.
Cllr Sean Matthews, Reform UK Leader of Lincolnshire County Council, made the point that lies at the heart of this whole saga:
“The impact of this development won’t be felt in London, where all these decisions have been made.”
Standing up for our communities
This is a disappointing result for residents in Scopwick, Digby, Metheringham, Navenby, Ashby de la Launde and every village that will live with the consequences. But Reform UK makes no apology for fighting. When Labour ministers in London overrule local people, someone has to stand up for them, and it was the Reform UK-led County Council that did.
The fight over our farmland is far from over. Springwell would rely on the proposed National Grid substation at Navenby, which we have formally objected to, and there are more schemes in the pipeline across North Kesteven. Every one of them is driven by the net zero laws the Conservatives put in place and Labour’s rush to meet them. Only a government that scraps net zero will put a stop to it, and that is exactly what Reform UK will do.
