It’s an ancient village dating back as far as the Bronze Age where the countryside still remains surprisingly peaceful considering its position on the outskirts of London.
But the quiet rural lifestyle still enjoyed by residents of North Ockendon today could vanish forever thanks to £15billion proposals for Europe’s biggest data centre.
Residents fear endless noise pollution – from not just construction but also operation, after locals next to other projects in the US have reported a constant 24-hour hum.
The ‘East Havering Data Centre’ is among about 175 new sites being proposed across Britain as the Government pushes for increased investment in the AI revolution.
The UK already has about 500 operational data centres, with the capital having the highest concentration amid a surge in demand for both AI and cloud computing.
But campaigners in North Ockendon, the easternmost point of Greater London, fear plans for the 600MW site on green belt land could force them to move out.
A major worry is a constant sound from gas turbines, used in some developments in the US to provide temporary power while the centres are linked up to the local grid.
While the East Havering site is set to be powered by a substation in nearby Warley, campaigners are concerned piercing whines will destroy the local peace and quiet.
Danny Leach, 58, has lived on a farm directly next to the site of the planned data centre in North Ockendon for 21 years and is concerned about the impact of the development
Emma Edmonds, 68, who is a grandmother of 22, has been living in North Ockendon for 50 years and is staunchly against the new data centre
The ‘East Havering Data Centre’ is a site planned for North Ockendon in Havering, East London
Emma Edmonds, 68, has been living in North Ockendon for 50 years and is staunchly against the new data centre. When she learned of plans two years ago, she painted a sign saying ‘No to data centre’, which she displays proudly outside her home.
She told the Daily Mail: ‘I had a video sent to me of a data centre half a mile away, which is roughly how far I am, maybe a little bit less. The noise was horrendous. I’m thinking: “God, I’m not going to be able to sleep, I’m not going to be able to think. Listen to how quiet it is”.’
The grandmother of 22 and great grandmother of three said she thought AI, which requires huge data centres to operate, was ‘dangerous’.
She added: ‘[Kids] don’t understand it – they’re taking in all this c**p and lies, to be honest, and it’s not good for them. You’re living in the real world here, you’re not living in the AI world, and you can’t live in the AI world, ever, because it’s dangerous.
‘In my opinion, it’s dangerous. I’m not particularly tech minded, but believe me, I know more about data centres than you would ever believe. I’ve had to read and read and read.’
Father-of-two Daniel Stock, 52, set up the Top Meadow Golf Course with his father on the site of their former poultry farm, after a downturn in business in the 1980s.
Now, he’s become surrounded on each side by development – including a newly-built solar farm to the east, impacting the beautiful views on each side.
The lifelong North Ockendon resident, whose clubhouse cafe’s outdoor seating face the planned development, said: ‘The construction, the noise, the pollution – everything that you think would go with a big construction like this.
An aerial view shows some of the farmers’ fields that could be turned into the data centre
Europe’s biggest data centre is expected to cover a huge 500-acre site in North Ockendon
‘I’ve lived here my whole life – I don’t want to look at it, my customers don’t want to look at it. It’s relaxing, tranquil, countryside views. Weddings, restaurant customers, golfers – they don’t want to come and look at what’s potentially going to be a massive construction site
‘You would have thought this was a pretty safe place for it not to happen, being that it’s on Metropolitan Green Belt, but they’re trying to push it through as special circumstances.’
He added: ‘[You hear] birds, foxes, and whatever it might be – it’s wildlife, it’s peaceful. That will go, it’ll be overrun by the noise. You’ve heard the one in America.
‘The electrical draw on it, the water draw on it – it’s not the right place either. You couldn’t probably get a worse place for it. There’s no construction around here, not even industrial.’
He added that he felt the countryside was ‘under attack’, explaining: ‘Huge, huge solar farms. We’ve got the Lower Thames Crossing as well, which is going to happen.
‘We’re getting it from all sides. Where the solar farm is, it’s now a field of glass. They’re not as offensive as wind turbines, they’re lower, but they still look like a sea of glass.’
Danny Leach, 58, has lived on a farm directly next to the site of the planned data centre for 21 years.
He said 60 species of birds – including peregrine falcons and barn owls – live on or around the site of the planned data centre.
Mr Leach told the Mail: ‘If you come out here at nighttime there’s no noise. They’ve done surveys – one evening we went out last summer and there were two guys in a car with a microphone out the window doing a sound survey at the top of the road and doing it here, a 10-minute drive-by.
Top Meadow Golf Course has had views impacted by a newly-built solar farm to the east
The current view of fields and unspoilt countryside from Fen Lane in North Ockendon
‘We had an acoustics company that come and done it for a week here and week at the golf course. They’re [the developers] are telling us the background noise is 45 to 60 decibels at the moment, actually it isn’t, it’s 22 and 24 decibels. They done it from the road.’
He said: ‘We’ve got peregrine falcons, I’ve got a pair of barn owls in the front garden that just turned up and nested this year, there’s hobbies, there’s red kites, there’s buzzards, there’s kingfishers.
‘Even if there was a nest of newts out here, the problem is the government now don’t deem them important enough to stop a development – a normal development like a house they’ll give you a bit of a stink at planning, but this is so high profile.’
‘The oak trees are never going to grow in our lifetime, them trees. They’re all 100 years plus, they want to cut them down. All these hedgerows will be gone, and they think people are going to come from the city and walk around.
‘This is going to have 21-metre high security fences around here, it’s like a prison. Does it need to be so big?’
Mr Leach said: ‘At that willow tree, there’s a pond with European bullfrogs and they croak. You can hear them croaking there from my garden – a quarter of a mile away, and you can hear them.
‘And then they’re going to have that monstrosity.’
Mr Leach said: ‘The people in the town – in Cranham, Upminster, in London, they don’t care about it, because it doesn’t affect them. That’s why they’ve picked a remote location like this.’
He added: ‘I’m not opposed to data, I’ve got data in my pocket on my photos, you’ve got it on your drone – we’ve all got it, but why do we need the biggest one in Europe?’
One couple, who asked to remain anonymous, said they had moved to North Ockendon for a ‘quiet life’ in retirement.
The man said: ‘When this developer originally gave a drop-in session at the church and were asked, they said the noise of the data centre could never be more than the noise that was currently there, and that if it was going to be any louder then they just couldn’t do it and they’d walk away, which is complete BS really.’
He added: ‘We sit here, there’s some noise from the M25 if the wind’s blowing west to east, but other than that the noises we get are the woodpecker, birds, and when the farmer is in the next field with his tractor, but that’s a nice noise, that’s the sort of noise you expect.
Developer Digital Reef plans for the site to use 540 acres of existing farmland in East London
‘This is agricultural land, green belt – this isn’t grey belt or brown belt, despite what the council have tried to portray.’
Developer Digital Reef plans for the site to use 540 acres of existing farmland and feature about 84 acres of data centre buildings as well as a 280-acre ecological park.
The firm expects the facility will take four years to construct – which is longer than most data centre projects which normally take between 19 and 30 months to build.
A 30-day consultation for the 2,700-page proposal ended on April 12, with Havering Council pushing the project through with a Local Development Order (LDO).
This planning tool grants advance planning permission for specific developments – speeding up the process by avoiding the need to submit a standard application.
The local authority – which was taken over by Reform in last month’s local elections – has been backing the project so far, amid hopes it will create thousands of new jobs.
Officials have cited the new ecological park as a particular plus point, given it is set to be open to the public and accessible through new footpath and cycling routes.
The site will include 400,000 square meters (4.3million square foot) of data centre space, battery storage, horticulture, educational and renewable energy facilities.
The council also expects the scheme to create 9,000 new jobs across the borough through construction, operation and the wider supply chain – and generate income of £13.5million a year for the authority.
In January last year, Sir Keir Starmer unveiled plans to expand the use of AI in a bid to boost growth – saying the UK will be an AI ‘superpower’.
The Prime Minister conceded there would be ‘teething problems’ involved in the process but insisted changes would help revolutionise creaking public services and turn around Britain’s economy.
The Government has also spoken about a series of AI ‘growth zones’ around Britain to help speed up planning approvals for data centres and improve access to the energy grid.
The existing farmland in North Ockendon, where the data centre is expected to be constructed
Ministers are making the construction of more data centres a focus for the UK, including by declaring them ‘critical national infrastructure’ in September 2024.
But the Government is also having to address the energy and water needs of the AI industry, with the technology requiring significant amounts of both to operate.
Water cooling is used stop computers overheating – and in East Havering’s case, the developer is suggesting excess heat from the centre can be redirected to heat local homes and a 12-acre indoor avocado farm.
Britain’s National Energy Systems Operator (Neso), which manages the UK grid, currently has 173 grid connection requests for new-build data centres.
But there is concern in UK communities following complaints by residents of Sterling in Virginia – an area nicknamed ‘Data Centre Alley’ for its cluster of sites near Washington DC – that they are suffering a constant hum from nearby data centres which is making their lives a misery.
One of the key noise issues is from on-site generators or gas turbines – and those living in areas surrounding proposed developments in Britain fear facing similar problems, given about 100 of the planned sites are looking into using on-site gas power.
A Government spokesman told the Mail: ‘The whole government is determined to create the right conditions for investment in the UK’s AI and data centre infrastructure, which will deliver jobs and opportunities that hardworking people deserve.
‘Data centres come under the same planning rules when it comes to noise, as any other development, with policies in place to keep adverse impacts on communities to a minimum.’
The UK’s National Planning Policy Framework states that planning policies and decisions should ‘contribute to and enhance the natural and local environment’ by ‘preventing new and existing development from contributing to, being put at unacceptable risk from, or being adversely affected by, unacceptable levels of soil, air, water or noise pollution or land instability’.
A Neso spokesman told the Mail: ‘NESO operates today’s electricity system and designs tomorrow’s energy system.
‘We’re working with government and Ofgem to ensure new demand, including data centres, is connected through clear, strategic planning that supports a reliable, clean and affordable system.’
The Mail contacted Havering Council and Digital Reef for comment.
