Back Phil Hutty's campaign to stop the Torrington Data Centre

Phil Hutty, Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidate for Torridge and Tavistock constituency believes that the Great Torrington AI Data Centre Plan put forward by XLinks is unnacceptable and is calling on the Government to halt the proposed scheme. 

Please sign Phil's petition below and send the Government and XLinks a strong message from Devon about the proposed Great Torrington AI data centre and data centre plans outside designated AI Growth Zones.

Phil will submit all responses to the Government to show how strongly our community feels about these plans and this issue.

Full details: 

The Liberal Democrats recognise that data centres and battery energy storage systems have an important role in the United Kingdom's future. 

However, the proposed development by XLinks in Great Torrington is unacceptable. 

The reported 850 acre development, comprising 1.5 GW of data centre capacity and 1.8 GW of battery energy storage would be on a staggering scale. It would be comparable in size to the neighbouring town of Great Torrington. It would be completely out of character with North Devon's landscape, communities and rural economy without any clear long term benefit to the local community. 

We acknowledge the proposal has not yet been formally submitted for planning permission, but its potential impact is already clear. It would involve the loss of a substantial area of greenfield agricultural land within the UNESCO North Devon Biosphere Reserve. The environmental, agricultural and social consequences of a development of this scale have not been adequately justified. 

We recognise that AI is increasingly part of everyday life and can offer potential benefits; nevertheless, these benefits do not provide a blank cheque for unlimited expansion of AI infrastructure. 

AI must be developed responsibly , with proper regulation and oversight. We must also consider the enormous demands that data centres place on electricity, water, land and infrastructure as well as the risk that rapidly changing technology could make facilities of this scale outdated within a relatively short period. 

For Great Torrington and North Devon the consequences could be profound. The proposal risks damaging the landscape, putting pressure on local infrastructure, affecting agricultural land and food security and fundamentally changing the character and quality of life of the area.

We therefore call on the Government to halt the proposal in Great Torrington and all large scale proposals outside of their designated AI growth zones. 

The Government must establish a National Sustainable Data Centre Strategy that sets out clearly how much data centre capacity the country needs, what will it be used for, where they should be located, why those locations are appropriate and what they will cost in terms of energy, water, land and wider infrastructure. 

We need a national conversation about how the UK can benefit from AI without sacrificing valuable agricultural land, natural environments and the character and well being of local communities.

Great Torrington should not become the location for an enormous industrial development simply because demand for AI infrastructure is growing. This proposal is on a completely inappropriate scale and is fundamentally out of character with North Devon.