 told the Telegraph it was 'appalled' by the scheme and vowed to fight it through the planning system. Alice Roberts, CPRE's head of campaigns, said: 'We are astonished and appalled the council has agreed to sink valuable time into developing a proposal which will cause massive environmental damage and is highly unlikely to gain permission.' The new campus is intended to be built on fields next to Junction 27 of the M25 motorway, near Upminster, in a semi-rural area traditionally viewed as part of Essex. The 499-acre site sits within the London green belt, a zone established to protect greenfield areas from property developers. Havering councillor Graham Williamson, who is responsible for development and regeneration, said: 'Although we will be using a small amount of green belt, this development represents substantial economic and skills opportunities for the borough.' Building the data centre campus will add £3bn to the UK's GDP across the five year construction period, according to council estimates prepared by consultancy Oxford Economics. Earlier this year, controversy arose after it emerged that there was a de facto ban on new housing developments along the so-called 'M4 corridor' to the west of London because planned data centres in the area had pushed the local electricity grid to maximum capacity. Documents published by Havering council suggest Digital Reef's data centre complex will need up to 600 megawatts o){kind=link}
Environmental group pledges to fight the construction of ‘nationally significant’ complex
A plan to build Europe’s largest data centre on the outskirts of London faces opposition from campaigners who claim the project will ruin the countryside.
A leading environmental group has pledged to fight the construction of the “nationally significant” £5.3bn data centre complex on green belt land in East London.
Led by developer Digital Reef, the project will become “Europe’s largest data centre” according to Conservative-controlled Havering Council, which endorsed plans for the scheme last week.
However, the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) told the Telegraph it was “appalled” by the scheme and vowed to fight it through the planning system.