The Issue,

Let’s set the scene.  North Ockendon is a small village on the outskirts of Greater London.  It’s even mentioned in the Magna Carta.  It hosts many listed buildings and has been a farming community for hundreds of years.  It sits outside of the M25, but is technically in the Borough of Havering.  It is a small, semi-rural village in a farming community.  Unique for London wouldn’t you say? Beautiful farmland, ancient fens, winding narrow lanes, lakes, a golf and country club, and a huge amount of wildlife in their natural habitats.
Now imagine a 600MW data centre stuck in the middle of that village.  We don’t think that 200+ hectares of arable farmland in the Metropolitan Green Belt should be given up for a 600MW data centre, guzzling our precious water and energy, and creating a heat island at a time when we such land should be given even more protection than it is currently ‘supposed’ to have.  We are learning more about the danger to food security, climate change, water scarcity, and the need to retain Green Belt to help protect our environment.
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Want to know more?  Read on:
Back in the Spring of 2024, residents of North Ockendon received notice from a developer of drop-in sessions to announce they were working towards constructing a 600MW data centre, the largest in Europe they said, on around 200 hectares of our Metropolitan Green Belt and arable farmland.  Who were these people?  Digital Reef.  Or Reef Origin.  Or any of the other hundred company names that their CEO wishes to use.  They claimed to be data centre specialists yet had never built a data centre – not ever.  Impressed?
 
Since those two initial drop-ins, residents have had to dig, claw and scream to get anywhere, and do their own investigations and research, because not one of our Ward Councillors was willing to speak with their own community.  No-one supported us.  Apart from Havering Friends of the Earth.  We have had to support ourselves. 
 
But we did pretty damn well.  We researched.  We investigated.  We reached out to others.  We even had whistleblowers (thanks to all of you).  And we eventually managed to get some really good legal advice.  We learned a lot, some of it very unsavoury.
 
You can also support us by donating to our cause for legal costs as we intend to take this case to a judicial review if it is approved.  Donate here: https://ddec1-0-en-ctp.trendmicro.com:443/wis/clicktime/v1/query?url=https%3a%2f%2fwww.justgiving.com%2fcrowdfunding%2fkaren%2dfitzgerald%2d1%3futm%5fmedium%3dCF%26utm%5fsource%3dCL&umid=6b55908d-d9f1-4a4c-8d8e-44c715758897&rct=1785948833&auth=b09136f15540b86873e08b88e8a24c73a0e3e8e6-6a3c055dec2fe6b5e65ef9291a58674132883891
 
Can we trust our Council and the Developer?
Illegal pre-construction had already started on the MEGA DATA Centre on Greenbelt Farm land in North Ockendon, Upminster back in November 2024.  Apparently without any permission or knowledge of the Planning Authority.  The developer and land owner took it upon themselves to put shovels in the ground.  Trustworthy to put something this important in their control?  No! 

Please we need your help to stop this drastic change that will ruin this food source land forever.