ENGLAND (AP) – Originally built to store crops from peasant farmers, the Tithe Barn on the edge of the English village of Abbots Langley was converted into homes that preserve its centuries of history. Now, its residents are fighting to stop a development next door that represents the future.
A proposal to build a data centre on a field across the road was rejected by local authorities amid fierce opposition from villagers. But it’s getting a second chance from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government, which is pursuing reforms to boost economic growth following his Labour party’s election victory in July.
Residents of Abbots Langley, 30 kilometres northwest of London, worry the facility will strain local resources and create noise and traffic that damages the character of the quiet village, which is home to just over 20,000 people.
Off the main street there’s a stone tower built in the 12th Century and, further down the road, a picturesque circular courtyard of rustic thatched-roof cottages that used to be a farm modeled on one built for French Queen Marie Antoinette.
“It’s just hideously inappropriate,” said Stewart Lewis, 70, who lives in one of the converted houses in the 600-year-old Tithe Barn. “I think any reasonable person anywhere would say, ‘Hang on, they want a data centre? This isn’t the place for it’.”
As the artificial intelligence (AI) boom fuels demand for cloud-based computing from server farms around the world, such projects are pitting business considerations, national priorities and local interests against each other.
Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has stepped in to review the appeals filed by developers of three data centre projects after they were rejected by local authorities, taking the decision out of the hands of town planners. Those proposals include Abbots Langley and two projects in Buckinghamshire, which sits west of London. The first decision is expected by January.
The projects are controversial because the data centres would be built on “greenbelt” land, which has been set aside to prevent urbanisation. Rayner wants to tap the greenbelt for development, saying much of it is low quality. One proposed Buckinghamshire project, for example, involves redeveloping an industrial park next to a busy highway.
“Whilst it’s officially greenbelt designated land, there isn’t anything ‘green’ about the site today,” said global head of data centres at Knight Frank Stephen Beard. Knight Frank is a property consultancy that’s working on the project.
“It’s actually an eyesore which is very prominent from the M25” highway, he said.
Greystoke, the company behind the Abbots Langley center and a second Buckinghamshire project to be built on a former landfill, didn’t respond to requests for comment.
In an online video for Abbots Langley, a company representative said, “We have carried out a comprehensive search for sites, and this one is the very best.”
It doesn’t specify which companies would possibly use the centre. The British government is making data centres a core element of its economic growth plans, deeming them “critical national infrastructure” to give businesses confidence to invest in them. Starmer has announced deals for new centres, including a GBP10 billion investment from private equity firm Blackstone to build what will be Europe’s biggest AI data centre in northeast England.
The land for the Abbots Langley data centre is currently used to graze horses. It’s bordered on two other sides by a cluster of affordable housing and a highway.
Greystoke’s plans to construct two large buildings totaling 84,000 square metres and standing up to 20 metres tall have alarmed Lewis and other villagers, who worry that it will dwarf everything else nearby.
They also doubt Greystoke’s promise that it will create up to 260 jobs.
“Everything will be automated, so they wouldn’t need people,” said tech consultant Jennifer Stirrup, 51, who lives in the area.
Not everyone in the village is opposed.
Retiree Bryan Power said he would welcome the data centre, believing it would benefit the area in a similar way as another big project on the other side of the village, the Warner Bros’ Studio Tour featuring a Harry Potter exhibition.
“It’ll bring some jobs, whatever. It’ll be good. Yeah. No problem. Because if it doesn’t come, it’ll go somewhere else,” said Power.