TL;DR
An application for a 150 megawatt data centre at Keswick, on Norwich’s southern edge, is now with South Norfolk Council, the BBC reported on Friday 9 October. The developer’s own noise assessment says the site could be very loud without extensive mitigation, thousands have signed a petition against it, and the council’s leader says he will object.
What is proposed
Norwich Apex Data Centre wants to build the facility close to Marston Marshes, a protected wildlife area, and close to a substation serving North Sea offshore wind farms that could supply its power. The submitted plans include assessments of the environmental impact.
Those assessments find the centre has the potential to produce “very high levels of noise” for the surrounding area, most of it from 72 rooftop chiller units. A spokesperson said the design keeps operational noise at nearby sensitive locations “in line with existing background levels”.
Norwich Apex also says the environmental work shows no harm to designated wildlife sites. It plans to cool the building with air rather than water, so water would only be needed for staff facilities such as toilets, and none would come from local rivers or marshes. It points to up to 150 permanent jobs and to planting and landscaping that would help screen the building.
The opposition
Objectors cite the effect on the marshes, water use, noise and the sheer size of the building in the landscape. Daniel Elmer, the Conservative who leads South Norfolk Council and represents Keswick on the county council, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service it is “just too damned big for the site”. He pointed to the nearby marshes, a listed church and the site’s position on a main road into the city, and said he would formally object.
Looking forward
Keswick is not the only data centre plan meeting resistance: Greenwich Council has opposed a Charlton Riverside proposal because it wants the area for homes. The two disputes differ: Greenwich’s objection is about land use, while Keswick’s centres on noise, wildlife and scale. In our view, the Keswick application will test how much weight councils give to developers’ mitigation promises when their own assessments flag a serious impact. The answer matters for operators searching for UK sites with power close by.