Where the Green Belt Meets the Server Farm

Between the commuter town of Potters Bar and the village of South Mimms, 85 acres of rolling farmland stitched together by hedgerows have served for generations as a green buffer separating suburban sprawl from the countryside. For the residents who walk their dogs along its footpaths and watch the seasons change across its fields, this patch of protected greenbelt represents something essential about the character of their community. Now, it is slated to become one of the largest data center complexes in Europe.

Multinational data center operator Equinix has acquired the land and intends to break ground this year on a development estimated to cost more than five billion dollars. The project would transform the agricultural landscape into a sprawling facility filled with the servers, cooling systems, and power infrastructure needed to feed the insatiable computational appetites of artificial intelligence. For Potters Bar, a town of about 15,000 people that most Londoners could not locate on a map, the project has delivered an unwanted education in the geopolitics of AI infrastructure.

How a Farm Became a Data Center Site

The path from farmland to server farm was paved by a series of policy decisions at the national level. In September 2024, a property developer applied for permission to build the industrial-scale data center on the agricultural land. The UK government's subsequent decision to classify data centers as "critical national infrastructure" gave such projects a level of strategic importance previously reserved for power plants and telecommunications networks.

More consequentially, the introduction of a "gray belt" land designation loosened building restrictions on underperforming greenbelt parcels, creating new pathways for development on land that had previously been considered off-limits. The local council granted planning permission in January 2025, and Equinix moved to acquire the site the following October. The speed of the process caught many residents off guard.

The convergence of these policy changes reflects the UK government's ambition to position Britain as a major player in the global AI economy. With countries racing to build the computational infrastructure needed to train and run advanced AI models, the pressure to identify and develop suitable sites has intensified dramatically. Data centers require large land areas, robust power connections, and proximity to network infrastructure, a combination of requirements that inevitably brings them into conflict with communities accustomed to open space.

The Community Fights Back

When residents learned of the plans, they mobilized quickly. A Facebook group established to oppose the project attracted more than a thousand members, and a petition on Change.org calling to save the 85 acres of greenbelt gathered significant support. The opposition draws from across the political spectrum, uniting residents who might disagree on many other issues but share a common attachment to the green space that defines their town's boundary with the countryside.

  • More than 1,000 residents joined a Facebook group to coordinate opposition to the data center project
  • A Change.org petition calling to save the greenbelt land has attracted widespread support
  • Residents cite concerns about loss of green space, increased traffic, noise pollution, and strain on local power infrastructure
  • Environmental groups have raised questions about the water consumption and carbon footprint of large-scale data centers
  • Legal challenges to similar greenbelt developments elsewhere in the UK could set precedents affecting the Potters Bar project

The objections are multifaceted. Beyond the loss of green space, residents have raised concerns about the operational impacts of a massive data center complex. These facilities run 24 hours a day, generating continuous noise from cooling systems and backup generators. They consume enormous quantities of electricity, raising questions about the capacity of local power infrastructure. And the construction phase alone would bring years of heavy vehicle traffic to roads not designed for industrial-scale logistics.

A Global Pattern Playing Out Locally

Potters Bar is far from alone in facing this kind of development pressure. Across the United Kingdom, the United States, and Europe, communities are grappling with proposals to site data centers in locations that residents consider inappropriate. A Washington Post investigation documented how a data center rebellion is reshaping the political landscape in communities from Virginia to Ireland, as the infrastructure demands of AI collide with local quality-of-life concerns.

The UK faces particularly acute pressure because of its relatively small land area and the density of its population centers. The greenbelt system, established in the post-war period to prevent urban sprawl and preserve access to countryside, is one of the most popular and politically sensitive planning designations in the country. Proposals to build on greenbelt land have historically generated fierce opposition, and the data center controversy has given new urgency to longstanding debates about the balance between development and conservation.

The government finds itself in a difficult position. On one hand, it has made clear that AI infrastructure development is a national priority, with economic and strategic implications that extend far beyond any individual community. On the other hand, the greenbelt protections it is eroding to facilitate that development enjoy broad public support, and the political costs of overriding local opposition are significant.

The Environmental Dimension

Environmental concerns add another layer of complexity to the debate. Large data centers are extraordinarily energy-intensive, and the power demands of AI workloads are growing exponentially. A facility of the scale proposed for Potters Bar would consume electricity equivalent to a small city, raising questions about whether the UK's power grid can accommodate the planned expansion of data center capacity without compromising its climate commitments.

Water consumption is another concern. Many data centers use evaporative cooling systems that consume millions of gallons of water annually. In a country where water utilities are already struggling with aging infrastructure and increasing demand, the addition of industrial-scale water consumers has drawn scrutiny from environmental regulators and conservation groups.

Proponents of data center development counter that these facilities bring significant economic benefits, including construction jobs, permanent technical employment, and substantial local tax revenue. Equinix has emphasized its commitment to renewable energy and water-efficient cooling technologies, though critics argue that the sheer scale of the proposed development means even efficient operations will have substantial environmental impacts.

What Happens Next

The outcome of Potters Bar's battle with the data center industry may set important precedents for communities facing similar challenges across the UK and beyond. Legal challenges to greenbelt data center developments in other locations, including a case in Buckinghamshire, could produce court rulings that affect the planning landscape for years to come.

For the residents of Potters Bar, the fight is deeply personal. The 85 acres of farmland at stake are not an abstraction on a planning map but a living landscape that they have enjoyed for decades. Whether their attachment to that landscape can withstand the combined force of global technology demand, national economic strategy, and corporate investment remains the central question of a story that is only beginning to unfold.

This article is based on reporting by Wired. Read the original article.