Girl asks council to 'fight' in data centre row

A nine-year-old girl has told councillors to "fight for our homes, community and landscape" in a row over plans for a giant data centre and battery energy storage site in the countryside.

Developer Xlinks wants to build the 1.5Gw AI data centre - which would be one of the biggest in Europe - near Torrington in north Devon in a Unesco biosphere.

The plans were first made public in June but local residents have used Freedom of Information requests to reveal the developer had been in discussions with Torridge District Council officials since March 2025.

The council said it was "standard practice for an organisation to consult with the local planning department" and no plans had yet been submitted.

Demelza, who lives nearby the proposed site, addressed Torridge District Council members on Monday at a full council meeting.

She said: "I'm very worried and anxious about the proposal because it's going to take away a huge area of land and change our home forever."

Demelza told councillors she wanted her future "to look green and beautiful", with "birds humming and singing and trees rustling".

She said: "It's your job to fight for local people, to fight for our homes, community and landscape."

The young girl asked council members to "do everything you can to protect our future and ensure this proposal does not go ahead".

She added: "The decision you will be making will affect me and all the other children in this area for the rest of our lives."

Xlinks has said the data campus would take up just over a third of an 850-acre (3.4 sq km) site between Great Torrington, Weare Gifford and Huntshaw, with the entire site being larger than Great Torrington.

About 100 people turned out to protest against the plans ahead of the Torridge District Council meeting.

The data centre proposals were not being discussed on Monday, but there were other public speakers who voiced their opposition, including Matt Whittaker, who played a recording of the noise of a data centre as he spoke.

Giles Atton, who also spoke in the meeting, said the boundary of the data centre would be 3m (10ft) away from his property.

He said: "It will cause irreparable damage to the lives of people in Torrington and the surrounding areas."

Atton said the development could also "set a very damaging precedent" for "Devon as a whole and the nation" if it was allowed to be built on "prime greenfield land".

Correspondence seen by the BBC which was released to campaigners after a Freedom of Information request shows Torridge District Council officers had a meeting with the developers in March 2025 to discuss the data centre plans.

The data centre would be made up of giant warehouses full of powerful computers used to run digital services.

Nobody from the district council provided any response to the public contributions on Monday but said written answers would be provided.

The council has said in a statement the pre-application process is "a confidential process between the applicant and the local planning authority".

It said: "During this time, it is standard practice for an organisation to consult with the local planning department to help inform the planning application and process."

It added that a pre-application response sent to the applicant was "not confirmation of any proposal but is intended to offer guidance".

Xlinks claims the data centre and battery energy storage centre would provide between 650 and 1,200 permanent jobs and generate £3.6bn annually for the local economy.

A spokesperson for Xlinks said in a statement said the firm was listening to "thoughts and concerns of North Devon residents which are helping to shape the plans for the Devon data campus".

The statement said plans were "at a relatively early stage" and would be shared with residents and councils "as soon as possible".

Xlinks had said it would hold public information days in July but those events were cancelled and no date has yet been set for when they might take place.

Follow BBC Devon on X, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].