Devon residents revolt over plans for massive AI datacentre and BESS campus

The datacentre revolt spreading across the US has reached the rolling hills of north Devon in an uprising against a planned hyperscale AI data campus in the middle of a globally protected landscape.

Perched on an inland cliff, the town of Great Torrington has views that stretch for miles over the landscape of the Unesco biosphere reserve in which it sits, taking in the winding River Torridge and rolling acres of wooded valley and wildflower meadows. Pastoral and peaceful, its history was notably punctured by violence in 1646 when the royalists’ resistance in the first English civil war was brought to an end by the parliamentarian New Model Army in a battle fought out in the narrow streets in heavy rain and darkness.

Today, a very 21st-century threat is rippling through the same country lanes as the AI boom reaches the pubs, churches and parish halls of Great Torrington and its surrounding villages.

The countryside that makes up the biosphere has been selected by a British company, Xlinks, to house a 1.5GW AI datacentre, one of the largest in Europe, as well as a vast 1.8GW battery energy storage system, or BESS.

About 344 hectares (850 acres) of countryside have been secured for the huge campus, with five vast buildings ranging in height from 50 to 130 feet. Listed buildings on the site, Xlinks says, will be relocated and transformed into a visitor centre.

Such is the anger locally that the new campaign against the AI datacentre has drawn in tens of thousands of people, uncovered what campaigners say is evidence of secret deals and adopted tactics being used by activists in the US such as Erin Brockovich.

A recent public meeting in Great Torrington was hosted by Elizabeth Humphreys of the US campaign group Not in My Valley. She was one of the forces behind achieving a permanent datacentre ban in Coachella, California, over concerns about air pollution, water and energy use.

“We’re fighting the largest companies that have ever existed in the world, and that is scary but we are all fighting this together,” Humphreys said.

“This is a global issue; we are all connected. People across the world are standing up and fighting back.”

Today within the halls and pubs of Great Torrington and the villages of Huntshaw and Weare Giffard, the AI project is the main talking point. And the question being asked is: why here, in a protected UN biosphere, on productive farmland?

The proposal was first announced to the public this summer with a call by Xlinks for a collaborative approach. But adopting the tactics of veteran campaigners like Brockovich, people from the Devon Datacentre and BESS action group took to their keyboards – researching, rallying and requesting more information in a series of freedom of information (FoI) applications.

What they uncovered fuelled the rising tensions. Documents released under FoI revealed the company had been in closed discussions with council officials since March 2025.

In April, the council issued a letter of “in-principle support” before any environmental statement or public consultation – and more than a year before the proposal was made public.

Torridge district council told the Guardian the pre-application process was standard practice and was confidential. A spokesperson said it was not confirmation of any proposal and intended to offer guidance on whether a proposal was acceptable in principle in planning terms.

In an email dated 18 December 2025, council officials and the developers discussed creating links with a sixth form college in Exeter and a stakeholder engagement plan. “Who do we all feel it is critical to get onboard and when both locally and further afield?” the email asked.

Emily Clark, of the Devon Datacentre and BESS action group, said: “Email exchanges and private meetings spanning the past 18 months reveal some officers treating the project as a foregone conclusion. Community frustration is understandably at boiling point.

“How can the largest and most costly infrastructure proposal in the nation be conducted almost exclusively in secret?”

FoI requests also uncovered a detailed site plan not released to the public. It revealed the two largest buildings would measure 335 metres by 267 metres and cover approximately nine hectares (22 acres) of ground footprint each – both big enough to house Exeter Cathedral 18 times over, campaigners say. Xlinks said its proposals cover about 344 hectares (850 acres) but only a third would be developed; the majority of land would be open to the public or used for new habitat creation to support wildlife, they said.

The campus would also house a 1.8GW battery energy storage system (BESS) involving 1,720 containerised units, dwarfing the largest operational BESS currently in Britain, such as the 100MW Bramley facility in Hampshire.

The UK urgently needs vast BESS facilities to balance electricity supply and demand as wind and solar power generation increase. The government estimates the country requires 23-27GW of battery capacity by 2030 to meet its clean power goals, which it describes as a “very significant level of increase”. But according to research by the House of Commons Library, the government does not hold data on the projected land use required for the expansion, has no specific policies for their location, and has no definitive estimate of the number of operational BESS facilities or their current total capacity. Campaigners in Devon say this creates a “regulatory wild west”.

Clark said: “We’re facing the biggest construction proposal of its kind in the UK, and for that matter, in Europe. It would not only annihilate 850 acres of prime north Devon farmland and breathtaking countryside – an ecological gem – but have massive repercussions for the entire region.

“At their sole public town hall meeting in June, Xlinks assured residents they intended to work collaboratively with our community. Regrettably, genuine dialogue has been nonexistent.”

Those rallying against the proposal cite its proposed location in a globally protected environment, water consumption, wastewater runoff potentially containing toxic Pfas, known as “forever chemicals”, air pollution, high background noise, safety and fire risks associated with the BESS and the industrialisation of open countryside.

In the last few weeks 30,000 people nationally have signed a petition launched by Cheryl Cottle-Hunkin, the cabinet member for rural affairs for Devon county council, calling on the government to pause all datacentre and BESS plans outside designated AI growth zones.

“Proposals like this outside AI growth zones are highly problematic, because they may seek to evade regulation and government scrutiny,” said Cottle-Hunkin. “We need an urgent national conversation on AI and associated infrastructure to make sure it’s on the right scale and in the right place.”

After the hottest summer on record, north Devon remains under a hosepipe ban and the potential water usage of such a vast site is a significant concern.

Xlinks says the data campus will be self-sufficient in water terms, recirculating it to absorb heat and topping up mainly from rainwater. But an FoI answer revealed that under extreme conditions, such as severe heatwaves and serious droughts, annual water consumption could reach approximately 2.9bn litres.

Xlinks told the Guardian that the design on which that water consumption estimate was based had been superseded by a new design that would be released during public consultation and in the planning application.

Community tensions erupted this week when protesters rallied and demanded answers about secrecy and due diligence outside a Torridge district council meeting. Doug Bushby, the chair of the council, responded by threatening to call the police over “unsubstantiated and unfounded allegations, abuse, harassment and intimidation”.

When planning applications were received, he said, “they will be dealt with within the same legislative, professional and operational boundaries that exist for all planning applications”.

Meanwhile, PR agents for Xlinks are contacting parish councils for private conversations.

On 18 September, Monkleigh parish council said the PR company Coast Communications had sought a closed meeting. Councillors said the minutes should be made public, and a recording released, but this was refused.

“As a result … Monkleigh parish council will not be accepting the invitation from Coast Communications on behalf of Xlinks to a closed meeting with them and therefore no meeting will be taking place,” the council said.

Xlinks is no stranger to Great Torrington. The company was behind a plan in 2024 to bring wind and solar energy to the UK from Morocco through subsea cables that would come ashore on the north Devon coast, including the building of a new electricity substation. But the government said it would not support the project because it was not in the UK’s national interest and did not clearly align strategically with the government’s mission to build homegrown power.

Xlinks said in a statement its £13.8bn AI and BESS project would bring significant economic investment, between 600 and 1,200 jobs and clean energy infrastructure to the region.

“We will ensure that the Devon data campus is designed sensitively for local people and the environment,” the company said.

“We are carrying out nature and wildlife surveys on site. We must legally improve biodiversity by at least 10%, and plan to exceed this by some margin. Buildings will be sited to minimise visibility, through topography, landscaping and the existing treeline.”

An environmental impact assessment was under way and any mitigation required would be built into the design and secured through planning conditions, Xlinks said.

A spokesperson for Torridge district council said Xlinks had planned to undertake a public consultation in July, but this was postponed until later in the year: “When any proposals are received these will be validated and details will be published on the council’s planning portal … We appreciate that this proposal will understandably continue to generate a lot of local interest.”

A spokesperson for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said: “Every battery storage facility we build helps protect families from future energy shocks.

“We have commissioned the national energy system operator to develop the first ever strategic spatial energy plan, which will support a more actively planned approach to energy projects, to bring good jobs to communities and help to lower bills.”