Faringdon Council shut the public out during a presentation on 22nd May by developer Spencer Cooper. He is proposing to build a data centre, housed in seven 25 metre high blocks plus two multi-storey carparks in Wicklesham Quarry SSSI. No wonder Faringdon Councillors didn’t want local people to hear about it. How are they planning to sell this to the people they convinced to support Faringdon Neighbourhood Plan?
https://ukpropertyforums.com/42000-sq-m-science-park-planned-for-oxfordshire/
*Data centres house thousands of servers to process and store internet data. A single data centre typically consumes as much electricity as a medium-sized town. Datacentre Magazine (30 Dec. 2022) reports that "an average hyperscale facility consumes 20-50MW annually – theoretically enough electricity to power 37,000 homes." Up to 40% of this energy is used for their cooling systems. To keep these vast, 24 hour facilities from over-heating, datacentres require enormous quantities of water: between 3 and 5 million gallons of water per day for an ‘average’ centre - the amount of water that would serve a city of between 30,000 and 50,000 people (US Department of Energy). Toxic coolant chemicals added to the water are then disposed of into the drainage system.
To say these facilities are an environmental nightmare is an understatement. Besides their unbelievable energy consumption and production of chemical waste, they require a huge energy back-up system (in case of power-cuts) of batteries dependent on mined metals including lead and diesel fuel generators (Computerworld 9 August 2019). Unsurprisingly the CO2 emissions of datacentres equal those of the aviation industry. (*This data is taken from industry sources cited below.)
In March 2023 Mr Geoffrey Spencer Cooper, who lives comfortably far away from Faringdon at Eaton Hastings House, obtained a ‘Screening Opinion’ on his proposal from the Vale of White Horse District Council Officers. Unbelievably, they said that an Environmental Impact Assessment would not be required.
Are Vale Planning Officers punishing the people of Faringdon for voting for a policy that the Council had repeatedly rejected from 2008 to 2016? We think so. Having voted to trash Wicklesham Quarry- the most important ecological site in Faringdon – in the Neighbourhood Plan, Planning Officers seem to think local people will now get what they deserve. However, we think Faringdon Councillors are principally to blame, having given the owners of Wicklesham free rein over Faringdon Neighbourhood Plan, and misled local people.
Wicklesham Quarry is a Site of Special Scientific Interest for geology, a Conservation Target Area, and a habitat for a European Protected Species. It is agricultural land, and lies outside Faringdon’s development boundary. To help us save this vitally important local site, please sign the petition on Change.org, and we will keep you updated. You can read more about the Quarry and the history of our campaign at: https://www.change.org/p/the-vale-of-white-horse-district-council-and-secretary-of-state-michael-gove-protect-wicklesham-quarry-from-development?just_created=true
* Information sources (data industry):
https://datacentremagazine.com/articles/efficiency-to-loom-large-for-data-centre-industry-in-2023