2026-09-27 / Signal #6
North Devon is fighting a hyperscale AI campus in a Unesco biosphere
“They want to put a supercomputer farm in a nature reserve. The village showed up.”
The Story
Plans for one of Europe’s largest AI data campuses — Xlinks, up to ~£14bn, ~850 acres near Great Torrington in a Unesco-designated reserve — have produced packed town halls, street protests, and a countryside campaign about water, wildlife, and “a blot on the landscape.” The Guardian frames it as the U.S. datacenter revolt arriving in rolling English hills. Planning applications are still ahead.
Why It Matters
Follow-on to “The Cloud Has a Smokestack,” but the new picture is sheep, biosphere plaques, and a town hall vs. a 1.5GW warehouse. Infrastructure becoming folk politics.
Evidence
The Guardian (Sep 27 feature); BBC
Sources
Daily scan: 2026-09-27