Data centre will be 'blot' on landscape, say protesters

More than 100 people gathered to oppose of plans for a new £14bn data centre and battery energy storage scheme in north Devon.

The company behind the project, Xlinks, said the data campus near Great Torrington would be designed to support the local environment and create hundreds of jobs.

Campaigners at the protest at Caddsdown Business Support Centre Bideford, ahead of a Torridge District Council meeting on Monday, described the proposed Artificial Intelligence (AI) centre as "absolutely enormous" and a "blot on the landscape".

A government spokesperson said new data centre developments must be considered through the planning system, assessing impacts on communities and the environment.

Campaigner Rita Farmer said she had lived in Devon for more than 45 years and the data centre would be "absolutely awful".

"It's just a total blot on the landscape.

"It's our wildlife. It's everything."

Xlinks said in its proposal for the site it would cover about 850 acres (about 345 hectares) but only a third would be developed.

A company spokesperson said the data campus would be designed to support the local environment, while supporting economic growth in the area and bringing 650 to 1,200 permanent high-quality jobs.

They said: "We will ensure that the Devon data campus is designed sensitively, for local people and the environment.

"Much of the site will be either open to the public or used for planting and to support wildlife by creating new habitats."

Proposals first emerged about an AI data campus, together with associated battery energy storage site (BESS), on farmland between Great Torrington, Huntshaw and Weare Giffard in June.

Campaigners called for a moratorium on planning permissions for data centres but this was rejected by the government on Friday.

In response to whether south-west England needed infrastructure for AI, Farmer said it was not needed.

She said: "None of it washes with me. I'm really angry.

"All we need is a decent countryside without this blot on the landscape."

Ange Wilson-Duffy said there was a good turnout, showing the "strength of feeling" in the community against the proposals.

"We care about it because it's a beautiful, tranquil green space on our doorstep and if this ever went ahead, it takes up so much of that beautiful green space.

"It's actually larger than Torrington town itself and it would totally ruin our way of life, which is a peaceful community which enjoys that rural landscape everyday."

She said the centre was "enormous" and would be one of the biggest in Europe and potentially "anywhere".

"The battery storage in particular at 1.8GW of lithium batteries right on our doorstep and the whole thing over 850 acres of productive farmland. It beggars belief really."

Xlinks said it was carrying out nature and wildlife surveys on site and, legally, it must improve biodiversity by at least 10%, and plan to exceed this by some margin.

It said: "Buildings will be sited to minimise visibility, through topography, landscaping and the existing treeline.

"The data centre will use air cooling and a closed-loop water system - it will not need to extract water from local rivers, streams or boreholes."

Chair of Devon Data Centre and BESS action Group Emily Clark said people were worried because the community could lose its beautiful north Devon landscape.

"It is prime farmland, food security is national security, that's what the government has already said.

"This whole industrialisation of north Devon will desecrate it. It won't come back.

"Once they put the concrete down and build these buildings, that's the end, and that's going to have a ricochet affect of other industrialisation, which will then come to this beautiful county.

"We just don't want that."

Clark, who moved to north Devon from London 20 years ago, added the proposals made her feel angry.

"I'm angry we've been earmarked when we're not in the designated AI growth zones.

"AI is here to stay and I'm not actually against AI - I'm against where the location is.

"We do not have the infrastructure for this kind of location."

She said Devon was for holidays and for people to relax in the countryside, not for a data centre.

"They're going to see this thing, hell on earth, on top of a hill overlooking Torrington," she added.

A spokesperson for Xlinks said the project team was working on the design for the campus, which was "still at a relatively early stage".

Follow BBC Devon on X, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.