Angela Rayner waves through divisive data centre on greenbelt land after riding roughshod over council refusal and villager outrage at 84,000sqm plans_Nhy
Angela Rayner has approved plans for a controversial new data centre to be built on the greenbelt despite the local council previously having blocked the move.
The deputy PM overturned the decision to stop the development of a £670million building, which would be used to hold information on the NHS and financial centre, in Buckinghamshire.
This comes as Labour vowed this week to ‘send a clear message to the Nimbys’ by unleashing planning processes in Starmer six new milestones.
Earlier this month the Government also designated data centres as Critical National Infrastructure (CNI), which means that previously rejected planning proposals such as this one are being revisited.
The project was originally blocked by the Conservative-run Buckinghamshire County Council in October 2023 because it found that it constituted ‘inappropriate development in the green belt’.
The council said it would damage the ‘landscape character and appearance and visual effects’ of the area.
However, Affinius Capital who will be funding the project claim it will bring £670million for the local economy and create 290 jobs.
A public inquiry is currently underway over a £1 billion project set to be built next to the M25 in Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire
Locals in a picturesque green belt village have gone to war with Angela Rayner (pictured) over plans for a sprawling 84,000 sq metre data centre in a field
The data centre is proposed by investment company Greystoke Land, and would sprawl over 84,000 sq metres across two buildings 65ft tall
The actual site is surrounded by other industrial buildings, such as a scrap metal recycling plant and a heavy goods vehicle storage.
Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook agreed with Ms Rayner’s decision claiming that it was an ‘optimal site and location for data centre use and there is a clear lack of alternative sites available at present to meet the demand for such data centres’.
He said that to block such a development would have ‘significant negative consequences for the UK digital economy’.
A written ruling issued on behalf of Ms Rayner on Friday noted: ‘The Secretary of State… considers that the harm to the Green Belt… is clearly outweighed by other considerations.
‘She therefore, in her judgement, considers that there are very special circumstances to justify this development in the Green Belt, and that the Framework’s Green Belt test is favourable to the proposal.’
The decision can be appealed via the High Court
This comes after Ms Rayner also pushed through plans for a ‘super-prison’ on greenbelt land on Thursday, more than three years after the scheme was rejected by locals.
The Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary has approved the building of a jail holding 1,700 lags near Chorley in Lancashire, despite fears inmates would outnumber the population of local villages.
Chorley Council dismissed the plan for a site in Ulnes Walton, which is close to two existing prisons, in 2021.
Residents had been against the proposed data centre in Abbot’s Langley, Herts – but the government has seen fit to approve it
Local councils blocked the application but an appeal was lodged with the government planning inspectorate in June, after Labour came into power
Noise, pollution, loss of green-belt land and traffic, along with loss of character, were major concerns of local residents
Chorley Council dismissed the plan for a site in Ulnes Walton, which is close to two existing prisons, in 2021.
It comes as the Ministry of Justice struggles with a shortage of prison places that led ministers to free thousands of prisoners early in the summer.
Whitehall’s spending watchdog warned earlier this week that Government plans to boost prison capacity could fall short by thousands of cell spaces within two years and cost the taxpayer billions of pounds more than anticipated.
The National Audit Office (NAO) said current expansion plans introduced by the Tory government are ‘insufficient to meet future demand’ amid a projected shortage of 12,400 prison places by the end of 2027, with costs expected to be at least £4 billion higher than initially estimated.
On Thursday, Ms Rayner also gave Marks & Spencer approval to bulldoze and rebuild its flagship Oxford Street department store.
