Campaigners Oppose AWS-linked Data Center in Bedfordshire, UK

Campaigners are opposing a hyperscale data center campus planned for Bedfordshire, UK, over concerns about its impact on the water supply. The facility is likely to host servers for Amazon’s AWS cloud platform, with Amazon Data Services named in several council documents.  However, advocacy group Foxglove says the plan should be rejected, and called for an urgent review of the UK’s strategy on new data centers.

Foxglove said the UK government has “two major questions to answer about allowing new gigantic data centers to be built,” relating to how it will ensure there is adequate power and water available for people living near new builds, and how it will mitigate the additional emissions caused by data centers.

“Until these questions have been answered, both for the proposed Houghton Regis data center in Bedfordshire and in general for all new projects across the country, planning permission should be refused,” Foxglove said.

The group added: “What is not up for debate is the tremendous resource cost, in drinking water, power, and carbon emissions, of the hyperscale data centers proposed in the current UK building spree. That’s why we’re pushing back and asking the government to show they have a plan for building new hyperscale data centers without trashing our critical supplies of drinking water, power, or shredding our chances of cleaning up our air.”