Scaled back proposals for a data center on Green Belt land in Essex, UK, have been submitted.

Developer Caineal is looking to build the campus on 1.8 hectares of land on both sides of Old Nevendon Road between Basildon and Wickford, Essex.

A planning application for the site, which is adjacent to the A127 road, was originally submitted in December 2023. Now a new application for the project has emerged, involving a smaller footprint, with the data center set to be located on one side of Old Nevendon Road.

The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) screening application - a precursor to a full planning application - was submitted on December 16, 2024, but reveals few details about the project’s current scope.

In the original EIA, it is stated that the data center would have offered 18,330 sqm (197,302 sq ft) of floor space, and feature an energy center and electrical substation, as well as backup generators and fuel storage. The developer is proposing to create public spaces around the data center as part of the scheme, with new sports pitches mooted in last year’s EIA.

Details of the data center’s IT capacity, or how it will be powered, have not been disclosed. Caineal says the development will create up to 120 permanent jobs.

Speaking to the Basildon Echo, local councilor George Jeffery, who represents Wickford, said: “The main thing for me is that we are chiseling away at the green belt between Basildon and Wickford, and we must be careful of that. By mistake, we are precipitating the merger of the two without realizing it.

“The investment is welcome, but the public must get reassurances, and it must come in at the right place with the power and what else it needs to run.”

The Basildon project fits with the UK government’s stated aim of attracting more data center investments by loosening planning restrictions on so-called “Grey Belt” sites - Green Belt land near major roads or on the edge of existing settlements.

In December, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner overruled a local council decision and approved a planned data center for a site in Iver, Surrey. Councilors had rejected the scheme as an inappropriate use of Green Belt land.

Two of Caineal LLP's founders, Mathew Bacon and Colin Hyde, are also directors of ARC:MC, an architectural, building information modeling (BIM), structural engineering, and interior design firm specializing in data centers. ACR:MC has worked on data centers for Virtus, Mace Technology, and Anova Data Centres, among others.