The UK faces a legal challenge to move forward at the 90 -megawatts data center

The UK government faces a legal challenge from activists regarding its decision to bypass local authority and wave by developing a new “Hyperscale” data center.

Last year, the local authority in Buckinghamshire, England, rejected planning to obtain proposals to build a new 90 -megawatt data center on the green belt ground. The green belt is a term in the planning of the British city indicating a area of open lands on which the building is restricted.

Data centers, and the large facilities that include the floods of computing systems to enable a remote delivery of various information technology services have witnessed a great demand in recent years amid a global rush to develop strong new AI systems, such as famous Chatbot from Openai.

At the same time, it was met with concerns of activists and environmental activists due to huge amounts of energy they need to keep them on a continuous basis. Artificial intelligence has been criticized, in particular, to consume huge amounts of energy.

Plans to develop the Buckinghamshire facility twice by the council were rejected previously. However, they were revived again under the government of the Labor Party, which is pushing to make the United Kingdom a Global Artificial Intelligence Center By intensifying the ability of national computing.

The Buckinghamshire Council again rejected the planned data center in June 2024, saying it would be “inappropriate” for its development on the green belt. Then, last month, British Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rainer granted the project planning permission, and canceled the decision of the local authority.

Foxglove campaigns and the global work plan announced on Thursday that it had provided a legal review of the official planning that requires the court to cancel Rainer’s approval of the data center, which raised concerns about the huge amounts of energy and water required by these facilities.

“It seems that Angela Rainer either does not know the difference between the power plant that already produces the energy and the sub-station that links you only to the network-or simply does not care,” Rosa Kerling, Executive Director of Foxglove, said in a statement on Thursday.

“In both cases, thanks to its decision, the locals and companies in Buckingagire will soon compete with the authority that means it in order to maintain the limelight, as we have seen in the United States, usually means high prices in the sky.”

The UK’s Ministry of Housing, Communities and Governments – Rainer also refused to comment on the legal procedure when asked by CNBC. The government has Previously stressed the importance of building the infrastructure of the data center To compete at the global level in developing artificial intelligence.

A step on Thursday comes after British Prime Minister Kiir Starmer announced in January plans to prevent activists from facing repeated legal challenges from the so -called “Nimbys” to plan decisions for the main infrastructure projects in England and Wales.

Nimby is a humiliating term indicating people who protest the developments they consider unpleasant or dangerous in their local area.