‘This is rural. This is country. Leave it as it is’: This planned 600MW data center in London’s green belt has infuriated local residents — and it’s not hard to understand why
The developer's own plans show it won't meet Net Zero
by https://www.techradar.com/author/benedict-collins · TechRadarNews By Benedict Collins Published 11 November 2026
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- A data center planned to be built in London's green belt has faced opposition from local residents
- The site will occupy more than 200 acres of green space, with the developers calling the site "a sustainable datacentre campus of the future"
- But the site will not meet Net Zero commitments and is projected to have the highest carbon emissions of any planned or operational UK data center
Residents beside a planned data center on the outskirts of London are not happy about the planned development which will see over 200 acres of greenbelt land ceded to developers to be converted into one of Europe’s largest data centers boasting 400,000 square meters of hardware capacity.
Data center developers in the UK have been having a tough time recently, with plans for the world’s second largest data center in Fife, Scotland, seeing widespread opposition, and a 450MW site in North Wales facing a rather negative reception.
But for some residents of North Ockendon in Havering, the idea of building a data center in green belt designated land is “sacrilege” and the development would damage the look and feel of the local community.
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Residents oppose green belt development
According to multiple residents, who spoke with the BBC, the development would detract from the natural setting of North Ockendon and set a precedent for green belt land development.
North Ockendon resident Emma Edmonds said, “Most people absolutely don't want this. It's sacrilege to just build something like that here. It's not the right place at all,” while Danny Leach, whose property sits close to the planned development, said, “There will be the construction for the next eight to 20 years. There will be noise, there's going to be another thousand vehicles a day they're saying.”
“There will be disruption, the mess, and then, obviously, when it's operational, the background noise the data centres make and the amount of electric it uses - we already have two power cuts a month here,” Leach added. “We all need data, but do we need the largest data centre in Europe in this location?”
The North Ockendon Residents Association labelled the project as a “massacre” of green belt land, with a spokesperson adding, “It’s crop-producing farmland, in an age when we are threatened by security, it’s the loss of wildlife habitats, and there’s the pollution cost, which everyone seems to brush under the carpet.”
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