Council backed Devon AI datacentre before it went public, Guardian reports
Xlinks plans a 1.5GW AI data campus and a 1.8GW battery storage site near Great Torrington, and locals are campaigning against it. (September 27, 2026 - 1:57 pm)
Credit: Mariia Berezovsky on Unsplash
A council in north Devon backed a huge AI datacentre plan more than a year before the public knew about it, as revealed by Sandra Laville for the Guardian.
Campaigners obtained the documents through freedom of information requests. They reveal that developer Xlinks had been in private talks with Torridge district council since March 2025. The council sent a letter of support in April 2025, prior to any environmental study or public consultation.
The council clarified to the Guardian that such early discussions are standard and confidential, indicating neither approval nor rejection of the proposal.
Xlinks' proposed site spans approximately 344 hectares within a UNESCO biosphere reserve. The project estimates a cost of up to £13.8bn and envisions creating 600–1,200 permanent jobs. Local objections centre around protected countryside, farmland loss, water usage (potentially up to 2.9bn litres per year, though Xlinks disputes this), noise, and fire risks from batteries. Devon is also currently under a hosepipe ban due to the record-breaking summer heatwave.
"How can the largest and most costly infrastructure proposal in the nation be conducted almost exclusively in secret?" questioned Emily Clark of the Devon Datacentre and BESS action group.
A national petition initiated by Devon county councillor Cheryl Cottle-Hunkin, with over 36,000 signatures, calls for a moratorium on datacentres and battery sites outside designated government AI growth zones. The UK government rejected this proposal on September 17, stating that existing planning and environmental checks are sufficient to address concerns regarding such projects.
Xlinks has pledged to design the campus with local people and nature in mind. A public consultation originally scheduled for July has been postponed until later in the year.
This debate echoes recent data centre protests in the US, where local groups blocked $130bn worth of projects in the first three months of 2026.