Data centre near Houghton Regis approved again after legal challenge

A solicitor’s letter led to full plans of applicant Colliers Properties LLC being reconsidered by Central Bedfordshire Council’s development management committee.

The company’s proposals included two data centre buildings, a substation compound, an access and parking, landscaping, technical plant and other works on land to the east of Sundon Road B5790 and west of the A505.

Principal planning officer Caroline Macrdechian told the committee: “The Section 106 agreement is being finalised and no decision notice has been issued to date.

“The solicitor’s letter raised concerns the climate-related and renewable energy mitigation measures relied on weren’t suitably secured by (planning) condition, and the draft agreement hadn’t been published before any lawful grant of permission,” she said.

“We sought legal advice before returning this to committee, enabling these matters to be resolved. It’s concluded the issues raised by the third party intervention have been adequately addressed by the revised wording of condition 24 and the publication of the draft Section 106.

“The site is located on Chantry Way. It’s within the strategic allocation for Houghton Regis North, known as Linmere. It benefits from outline consent for the wider development, including residential and other uses, with a smaller data centre.”

Chalton parish councillor Keith Featherstone explained: “The applicant received pre-application advice to submit a sustainability statement and was encouraged to consider opportunities to provide waste heat recovery from the data centre to neighbouring developments.

“But it only shows the energy efficiency and carbon dioxide reduction for the two buildings storing the electronic and mechanical equipment. It’s those internal facilities which use energy and generate the great quantity of waste heat. No sustainability analysis has been provided for this equipment.

“Unfortunately, we find the sustainability statement is the original and unchanged one. It’s been stated that this is insufficiently precise and doesn’t contain any commitments around renewable energy.

“There’s a denial the heat expelled into the atmosphere from this data centre is a significant environmental concern. It’s madness to invest in an increased grid capacity and then allow most of the energy to add to global warming.”

Planning agent for the applicant Nick Finney, of Data Center Dynamics, confirmed: “The applicant remains committed to delivering the measures identified in the submitted sustainability statement.

“There’s no change in the proposals or planning evidence. Data centres are the backbone of future economic growth, with their importance acknowledged by the government through their designation as critical national infrastructure.

“They underpin modern daily life and the functioning of the wider economy, supporting routine activities that residents and businesses rely on every day. The principle of developing the site into a data centre has been established under the previous outline planning approval for the wider Linmere project.

“The data centre here is proposed to be air cooled, which means for about 97 per cent of the year this development uses no water to cool the servers. The use of water for a short period annually on the hottest days enables the involvement of a more efficient cooling system saving energy the year round.

“This vital piece of infrastructure represents a significant inward investment to the local economy. There would be 70 permanent jobs, based on its 24-hour nature, so security and maintenance, as well as specialist technicians to maintain and replace the machinery.”

Asked about parish council concerns, he replied: “Heat export can be provided, but it depends on the availability of a potential heat network and a specific customer.”