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Britain’s Brewing Battle Over Data Centers
The Labour Party, which is leading in UK election polls, has proposed making it easier for companies to build new server farms—risking a new type of conflict in communities across the country.
After 14 years of center-right Conservative rule, polls predict that voters will endorse the center-left Labour Party’s pledges to kick-start economic growth and grasp the potential of AI—in part by making it easier to build more data centers across the country. “The question for national politicians, rather than poor little us, is: What does the country value most?” says Jane Griffin, spokesperson for the Colne Valley Regional Park, a stretch of farmland, woodland and lakes on the outskirts of London where there have been six applications to build new data centers. Earlier this year, a data center project the size of 15 American football fields proposed by investment company Greystoke was rejected after local officials in the region of Hertfordshire said it would be inappropriate on greenbelt land.
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