Stop the AI data centre being built in Loughton
The Issue
Epping Forest Council are considering planning permission for an AI data centre in Loughton. You can view the application status on the council website using the reference number NOT/3025/26.
Data centres are being prioritised over human lives across the world. In Loughton, Woodford, Chigwell, and surrounding areas, we've already had hosepipe bans and water shortages, and this week alone 10,000 homes across 14 postcodes in our area have had little to no water, including residents who are elderly, living with disabilities or long term health conditions, or with children under 5-years-old.
Data centres can use up to 10 million litres of water per day (source: https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/166455/pdf/ Do we really believe that in the next heatwave, we'll be prioritised over the data centre?
Who will this data centre actually benefit? We certainly don't need the problems that come with data centres.
Here are just a few problems residents across the world have experienced living near a data centre:
- massive energy price increases (almost 10% in some places in the US)
- depleted water supplies in water-stressed areas, leaving residents with little or no water for long periods of time
- polluted air resulting in an increased risk of respiratory diseases, heart disease, asthma, and other health risks
- increased noise at all hours, sometimes reaching 85-100 decibels, lasting hours or days at a time
- loss of land, disrupting local wildlife and/or preventing any opportunity to build future homes for residents
- light pollution at all hours of the night, disturbing sleep patterns and the migration patterns of local wildlife (some residents in the US report a massive increase in migraines due to lack of sleep as a result of the light and noise produced by data centres)
There is no such thing as an 'environmentally friendly data centre'; they cannot run on renewable energy alone and they waste gallons and gallons of water. The resources the one in Loughton will use will come directly from us.
We should not be subjected to living under conditions we never signed up to for the sake of a data centre.
Our lives are more important than that. Our lives come first. Our lives matter more.
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The Issue
Epping Forest Council are considering planning permission for an AI data centre in Loughton. You can view the application status on the council website using the reference number NOT/3025/26.
Data centres are being prioritised over human lives across the world. In Loughton, Woodford, Chigwell, and surrounding areas, we've already had hosepipe bans and water shortages, and this week alone 10,000 homes across 14 postcodes in our area have had little to no water, including residents who are elderly, living with disabilities or long term health conditions, or with children under 5-years-old.
Data centres can use up to 10 million litres of water per day (source: https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/166455/pdf/ Do we really believe that in the next heatwave, we'll be prioritised over the data centre?
Who will this data centre actually benefit? We certainly don't need the problems that come with data centres.
Here are just a few problems residents across the world have experienced living near a data centre:
- massive energy price increases (almost 10% in some places in the US)
- depleted water supplies in water-stressed areas, leaving residents with little or no water for long periods of time
- polluted air resulting in an increased risk of respiratory diseases, heart disease, asthma, and other health risks
- increased noise at all hours, sometimes reaching 85-100 decibels, lasting hours or days at a time
- loss of land, disrupting local wildlife and/or preventing any opportunity to build future homes for residents
- light pollution at all hours of the night, disturbing sleep patterns and the migration patterns of local wildlife (some residents in the US report a massive increase in migraines due to lack of sleep as a result of the light and noise produced by data centres)
There is no such thing as an 'environmentally friendly data centre'; they cannot run on renewable energy alone and they waste gallons and gallons of water. The resources the one in Loughton will use will come directly from us.
We should not be subjected to living under conditions we never signed up to for the sake of a data centre.
Our lives are more important than that. Our lives come first. Our lives matter more.
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Petition created on 12 August 2026