More than 100 people attended a public meeting at High Legh Village Hall near Lymm on 30 September to discuss plans for a 60-hectare (148-acre) data centre complex in Little Bollington, a greenbelt area in Cheshire near Manchester.

Mike Reed, a local resident who is organising opposition to the plan, described the complex to the BBC as an “industrial monster” and said locals were anxious about its impact on homes, businesses and wildlife.

Innova, which held the meeting and is developing the plans, said it was “pleased with the turnout” and was “grateful” for feedback around water usage, noise, landscape, drainage and green belt issues.

Green-belt land

It said it is undertaking technical assessments that would provide answers to such questions.

A second in-person consultation is planned for later this year, with Innova intending to submit plans to Cheshire East Council early next year.

The project is intended to be built on land owned by the Tatton Estate, and is to include a training facility, offices, a district heat network and a solar farm.

Local backlash

The data centre, called Spodegreen, would be Innova’s first data centre in the North West.

Data centre projects have faced increasing opposition as tech companies race to build expansive, energy-hungry projects to power AI workloads.