Data centre could impact ongoing Unesco status

An environmental organisation has confirmed an eco-designation could be at risk if plans for a massive data centre in it are progressed.

Unesco said if prospective plans for what would be the UK's largest data centre went ahead in the North Devon Biosphere, that would have to be factored into any decision to allow the area to maintain its classification.

The area is one of seven biosphere reserves in the UK that Unesco says promote and work towards a "positive future by connecting people and nature".

A spokesperson for Xlinks, the developer of the data centre, said it would take into account feedback as part of an extensive consultation before submitting planning applications.

A spokesperson for Unesco said a development of this scale, in the Transition Zone set aside for sustainable activity, was the kind of change that would need to be taken into account, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

They said: "While Unesco won't be submitting a formal comment on this proposal, the question of whether a data centre's compatibility with the site's sustainable-development mandate is one that will feed directly into how North Devon's continued designation is assessed."

The spokesperson added that biosphere reserves such as the North Devon Biosphere underwent a periodic review every 10 years against the Man and Biosphere programme's internationally-agreed criteria.

While Unesco said it does not rule on planning applications and the biosphere designation did not carry the legal power to approve or block a development this "does not mean Unesco has no stake in it".

"Sites are expected to keep demonstrating, in practice, that they deliver on the conservation, sustainable-development and support functions the designation is built on," they said.

Proposals first emerged about an 850-acre AI data campus, together with associated battery storage, on farmland between Great Torrington, Huntshaw and Weare Giffard in June.

A spokesperson for Xlinks said the project team was working on the design for the campus that was "still at a relatively early stage".

They added that the proposals represented "a major investment in the regional economy and will create between 650 and 1,200 high quality, permanent jobs, as well as allowing the South West to benefit from the expansion of AI".

Xlinks said it would only build on a third of the 850 acres with much of the remaining space open to the public and used for measures to support nature and wildlife by creating habitats, improving biodiversity by "at least 10 per cent".

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