A tiny ride from London, the town of Potters Bar is separated from the village of South Mimms by 85 acres of rolling farmland divided by a tussock of hedgerows. In one field, a lone oak tree serves as a stop on a public path. Recently, the tree has also become a site of protests. A poster tied to the trunk reads: “NOT FOR DATA CENTER.”
In September 2024, developer applied for permission build an industrial-scale data center in agricultural areas – one of the largest in Europe. When the locals caught wind, they started a Facebook group in hopes of blocking the project. Over 1,000 people registered.
Local authorities have for now dismissed the group’s complaints. In January 2025 this given building permit. The following October, international data center operator Equinix purchased land; intends to make a breakthrough this year.
On a dreary Thursday afternoon in January, I huddled around the gate leading out to the farmland with Ros Naylor – one of the Facebook group administrators – and six other local residents. They told me they oppose the data center for a variety of reasons, but particularly the loss of green space, which they see as an invaluable escape route from the city to the countryside and a buffer from the highway and gas station on the horizon. “The beauty of walking through this neighborhood comes through this space,” Naylor says. “It’s incredibly important for mental health and well-being.”
As the UK Government racing to meet voracious demand for data centers that can be used to train AI models and run AI applications, similarly gigantic facilities can be built By the country. But for those living closest to them, the prospect that AI could revitalize the economy or bring recent capabilities to their smartphones is little consolation in the face of what they see as the disruption of rural lifestyles.
The bonfire of bureaucracy
Since the mid-20th century, London has been surrounded on all sides by an almost continuous mosaic of areas called the green belt, consisting of farms, forests, meadows and parks. Under UK law, construction is only permitted on green areas in ‘very special circumstances” The goal is to protect rural areas from urban encroachment and keep neighboring cities from collapsing into an amorphous blur.
After the current government comes to power in 2024, however, the United Kingdom introduced a new land classification—gray belt – to describe lower-performing green belt plots where it would be easier to obtain a building permit. Around the same time, the government announced that it would treat data centers as “critical national infrastructure.” Together these changes have cleared the way Down a number of new data centers is to be built across the UK.
They are trying to develop models that surpass human intelligence, the world’s largest artificial intelligence laboratories plans to spend billions of dollars including infrastructure. Around the world, wherever recent data centers are built, developers face organized resistance from affected communities.
When the local planning authority approved the Potters Bar data center, its officers concluded that the farmland met the definition of a gray belt. They also said their decision is influenced by government support for the data center industry. They concluded that the benefits from infrastructure and economic development outweigh the loss of green space.
“People have a somewhat romantic idea that all green spaces include unspoilt, rolling fields. The reality is that this place, like many others, is not like that at all,” says Jeremy Newmark, leader of Hertsmere Borough Council, the constituency that includes Potters Bar. “It’s a patch of green belt with very low productivity.”