Protesters vow to win in Torrington demonstration against data centre

Chanting “we will win” more than 100 protesters with banners gathered in Torrington on Friday (October 16) to show the strength of feeling against a massive AI data centre and battery energy storage system (BESS) proposed for fields above the town.

Energy company Xlinks wants to build the £13billion complex on 850 acres which would be one of the largest sites of its kind in Europe.

It has attracted huge opposition from residents who say the development, which includes 40-metre high data buildings, will ruin valuable farmland and have a massive visual impact on the town and surrounding countryside.

They are also concerned about it destroying wildlife and being a drain on local water resources plus potential fire risks.

The protest in Torrington was the latest of a number of demonstrations and timed to coincide with a meeting of Devon County councillors in the town hall.

Campaign group Devon Data and BESS Action Group is working with countryside charity Devon CPRE to fight the plans along with Devon County Council cabinet member for rural affairs Cheryl Cottle-Hunkin, who represents Torrington Rural.

Using a megaphone to address the crowds, Cllr Cottle-Hunkin said the location was completely “unacceptable and inappropriate” but the project was much more than being a blot on the landscape.

She said: “It’s the knock on effect which will be for generations and generations. I want to stamp on it now so they (Xlinks) don’t even put in a planning application

“We need to make it clear that Devon is not a suitable place. It needs to go on a brownfield site and this scale is unbelievable. I cannot get my head around how big this will be.”

She said the developers had “completely picked the wrong place” and underestimated “this amazing community.”

She added: “I want to thank everyone. This is going to be a long fight but we will win it, I know we will.”

Kyla Manenti went to school in Torrington and has lived there for the past eight years with her family. She said: “I want a future for my children but if it carries on we are not going to stay in Torrington, we are going to have to find somewhere else to live.

“This will completely destroy the heart of the town, this is a town that has amazing community spirit, so much heritage and tradition. It is all going to be destroyed because of greed and this industrialisation that is happening to our rural landscape and I find it disgusting.”

Jenny Dunn added: “I want councillors to listen to us, not the big investors that just want to bleed our resources and ruin our environment. It is farmland; it needs to remain that way. They need to say no.”

Daisy Hiron Snow said data centres were being referred to as critical infrastructure but the only critical infrastructure humanity actually needed was “healthy soils, thriving eco systems, clean air and water.”

Matt Whittaker, vice chair of the Devon Data Centre and Bess Action Group said the plan by Xlinks was to take the top of the hill to level it off and then construct the 40m buildings to top.

He said: “It’s still colossal, from here you can see the sea, Dartmoor and Exmoor and so all those people visiting will all be able to see these buildings too.

“They are going to landscape part of the site and create publicly accessible land. Give me that job because I will not have to touch it as it has been landscaped for thousands of years.

“Also Torrington already has over 300 acres of publicly accessible land, we are known for that… it is a kick in the teeth to say we are going to enjoy some more.”

Devon county council chairman Julian Brazil said the data centre was a massive issue for this part of Devon.

He added: “Energy, water, forever chemicals, the size of them and sight of them, these are all issues that have got to be addressed and the public need to be reassured that these are being taken into account.

“How ironic that here in Devon at the moment we are just going into severe drought and talking about data centres that use more than six million litres of water a day to run … where is that water coming from? These are questions that we need proper answers to.

“Also we are being told that artificial intelligence is possibly going to wipe out humankind and we talking about creating more data centres that will only give them more power and more opportunity to wipe out the human race.

“It’s almost like a lemming-like behaviour of humans to create a network of data centres so AI can wipe us out. Until there is proper control of these companies and tech billionaires there are some various serious issues that need to be answered.”

Xlinks says the project is designed to be “a long-term anchor for digital infrastructure in the South West” and would create between 650 and 1,200 “high quality jobs.”

Planning applications are expected to be submitted by Xlinks in the coming months. They will be determined by Torridge District Council as the local planning authority.