In September 2024, a property developer applied for permission to build an industrial-scale data center – one of the largest in Europe – on the farm. When locals learned of this, they started a Facebook group in hopes of blocking the project. More than 1,000 people signed up.
The local government has so far rejected the group’s complaints. In January 2025, it granted planning permission. The following October, multinational datacenter operator Equinix acquired the land; It intends to achieve new achievements this year.
On a gloomy Thursday afternoon in January, I gathered with Russ Naylor, one of the Facebook group’s administrators, and six other local residents around a gate leading to the farm. They told me they object to data centers on a variety of grounds, but especially over the loss of green space, which they see as an invaluable escape route from the city to the countryside and a buffer against the highways and fuel stops appearing on the horizon. “The beauty of walking in this area is coming from this place,” Naylor says. “It’s incredibly important for mental health and well-being.”
As the UK government races to meet the huge demand for data centers that can be used to train AI models and run AI applications, similarly large facilities are to be built across the country. However, for those who live in the immediate area, the prospect that AI could boost the economy or add new capabilities to their smartphones is little consolation to what they view as disruptions to rural lifestyles.
bonfire of red tape
Since the mid-20th century, London has been surrounded on all sides by a nearly contiguous piece of land, known as the Green Belt, made up of fields, woods, meadows and parks. Under UK law, building on green belt land is only permitted in “very special circumstances”. Its objective is to protect rural areas from urban encroachment and prevent neighboring cities from turning into an amorphous blob.
However, after the current government comes to power in 2024, the UK introduced a new land classification – gray belt – to describe underperforming parcels of the green belt on which construction should be more easily permitted. Around the same time, the government announced that it would consider data centers as “critical national infrastructure”. Together, those changes have cleared the way for the construction of new data centers across the UK.
The world’s largest AI labs plan to spend trillions of dollars in total on infrastructure as they attempt to develop models capable of surpassing human intelligence. Around the world, wherever new data centers are being built, developers are facing organized resistance from affected communities.
When the local planning authority approved the Potters Bar data centre, its officials concluded that agricultural land met the definition of gray belt. He also said that his decision was motivated by the government’s support for the data center industry. They concluded that the benefits from infrastructure development and economic perspectives outweigh the losses of green space.
“People have this slightly romantic idea that all Green Belt land consists of ancient, lush farmland. The reality is that this site, along with many others, is nothing more than that,” says Jeremy Newmark, leader of Hertsmere Borough Council, the constituency that includes Potter’s Bar. “It’s a piece of very underperforming green belt land.”
<a href