Wiltshire Council Approves Ark’s Expansion

Ark Data Centres has been granted approval to expand its campus in Wiltshire, UK. This decision comes despite environmental action group Neston Westwells raising concerns about flooding, and more than 1100 objections from residents worried about the size of the building and the noise, once the expansion is complete.

These concerns, raised in December, led to a postponement so that the Council could evaluate the project before making a decision.

The project will now proceed, with Ark able to construct a 294,000 sq ft (27,350 sqm) on the Spring Park site, where it already owns and operates six data centres. This will be the seventh.

The new facility will be located on the edge of the property, less than 50 sqm from a retirement village. These retirees submitted many of the 1100 objections to the Council, citing the size of the building, the disruption of construction and operation, and the environmental impact with regard to increased danger of flooding.

Rob Silvester, Ark’s chief revenue officer, acknowledged the objections and reframed the project as a strategic investment for the community, noting the 87 jobs it would create. “We appreciate the strong feelings in the community,” he said, “and we want to have a stronger collaborative relationship with our neighbours now that the decision has been made.

“The new data centre will help us to meet growing demand to support the economy and customers across public and private sectors,” he added.
Ark isn’t a new entrant to the UK market. It currently has 27 data centres in development or operating across the UK and Belgium, including one near London that the company describes as the ‘largest data centre’ in Europe.

This facility will deliver up to 200 MW of capacity and cost £2 billion ($2.6 billion).

The new campus will comprise up to six data centre buildings. Phase 1 construction will begin later this year, with the first building operational by 2029.

According to a statement from Ark, “The proposed development will be a best-in-class campus able to deploy a full suite of government, enterprise, cloud, and AI workloads across Ark’s diverse customer base, which includes many of the most well-known and valuable tech companies in the world.”