£2.5bn super hub blocked – for spoiling views over the M25

The plans to build a data centre of “national importance” on the green belt have been blocked over fears it would spoil views from bridges over the M25.

The tech hub would have attracted an investment in the UK of £2.5 billion and created 370 jobs, according to estimates.  

Ministers acknowledged that the development would have significantly fulfilled Britain’s “urgent and overwhelming” need for more data storage and boosted the economy, but said that preserving the openness of the countryside was more important.

The proposed 163,000sqm site was said to include buildings that would “significantly harm the openness of the green belt” and lead to “unrestricted sprawl of a large built-up area”.

It was said that the critical infrastructure was refused because it “would be visible above the vegetation along the motorway” forming an “incongruous feature”, according to a report outlining the decision sent to developers last week.

The report also slapped down the idea that the capital’s M25 Orbital Motorway formed a “new urban edge of Greater London”, within which building the data centre could be justified, because the road is “relatively new” despite the first section being opened in 1975.

It comes after Chancellor Jeremy Hunt pledged in last year’s Autumn Statement to make the UK the “world’s next Silicon Valley” by investing in digital technology to grow the economy.

Local government minister Lee Rowley, who rejected the application on behalf of Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove, placed “substantial weight” on the harm the data centre threatened to inflict on the character of a former quarry and landfill between Slough and Uxbridge where it was proposed to be built.

Mr Rowley took the decision despite public views of the critical infrastructure likely to be “limited” and only fully visible from a nearby lake used by anglers, according to the report.

The three “tall” and “bulky” buildings that would have made up the data centre were noted as being visible from pedestrian bridges crossing over the M25 and a public footpath to the south of Palmers Moor Lane.

The developers made a pledge to plant some 18,000 trees at the site, but the council voiced an objection to this and said the “trees themselves” would impact the open character of the landscape and the proposals were refused even though 77pc of the site was set to remain undeveloped. 

Data centres store, process and safeguard large amounts of digital information and were described as providing “essential services” by the Government in a call for evidence on how to strengthen the UK’s technology infrastructure last year. 

Media and creative industries minister Julia Lopez said at the time that “data centres and cloud platforms are a core part of our national infrastructure. They power the technology which makes our everyday lives easier and delivers essential services like banking and energy”.

The report said that the greenfield site had the “impression of open land, even though there are no clear views across the site”. 

It added: “The proposed buildings would be visible through the tree cover, and it would be clear to anyone using this footpath that the site was developed.”

Mr Rowley was noted as having taken into account that there are no alternative sites available for the data centre, which was intended to meet Slough’s demand for data storage and processing, but suggested that other sites further away from the town were available.

Developers Greystoke Land and Altrad Limited had appealed a decision to refuse planning from Buckinghamshire Council in September last year to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

They made the case to the Government that data centres are critical infrastructure of “national importance” and that the UK was currently facing an “urgent and overwhelming” shortage and required new ones to be built up until 2027.

However, ministers sided with the council’s decision to refuse planning which, among preserving the green belt, listed doubts about the requirement for data centres because “the future is unknown and so no reliance can be placed on any long term need.”

The proposed data centre would have risked becoming a “white elephant” if technology evolved to the point where they were no longer needed, the council had argued. 

The developers have six weeks to appeal the Government’s decision at the High Court.

Buckinghamshire Council’s reasoning for refusing the data centre, included in the report, asserted that the proposed area of development remained rural and unspoilt, despite hosting one of the UK’s busiest motorways.

The report said: “Features around the site, such as the M25, have an urban influence, but they do not detract significantly from the largely rural feel, with the site maintaining a strong unspoilt character.”