Root-Power wins planning appeal for 50MW BESS in Wakefield

2 December 2025

Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) specialist Root-Power has successfully appealed a refusal for a new 50MW battery energy storage site in Featherstone, near Wakefield.

The Cooklands Farm site is located 750m from the point of connection at Featherstone Substation and sits on land south of Normanton Industrial Estate.

Planning permission for the project was initially refused by committee in July 2025 due to its location on Green Belt land, despite a recommendation from the planning case officer to approve the development with conditions.

In its appeal, Root-Power, alongside planning consultants Lanpro, argued that the chosen site was grey-belt land and did not meaningfully contribute to Green Belt purposes. The Planning Inspectorate accepted this position and granted the appeal.

In allowing the appeal, the Inspector cited the Clean Power 2030 Action Plan, noting that the UK’s current storage capacity falls far short of what is required to achieve a decarbonised grid – highlighting a compelling unmet national need that projects like Cooklands Farm directly address.

Construction of the project is scheduled to begin in 2028, with full commercial operation expected in 2029, following the completion of super-grid transformer upgrade works at Featherstone BSP by Northern Power Grid.

Neil Brooks, MD at Root-Power, says:

“It is fantastic to see the planning inspectorate supporting the roll-out of this vital technology, Cooklands Farm is Root-Power’s third successful planning appeal in the last 6 weeks. In all three cases the projects had been recommended for approval by their respective planning officers but refused at committee.

“Yorkshire is an important region for Root-Power with this latest project in due to join projects in Selby, Rochdale and Camblesforth – a total of more than 230MW going live by 2030.”