A deliberate 80 MW knowledge centre at Peel Park on the outskirts of Blackpool has been given the inexperienced mild by Fylde Borough Council’s planning committee.
The consent covers an roughly 20‑acre plot inside a 37‑acre freehold web site instantly adjoining to current workplace buildings leased to the Division for Work and Pensions.
Strategic web site with energy and fibre
The land earmarked for the information centre is at the moment underused, primarily serving as automobile parking, scrubland and timber, though it advantages from strategic connectivity. Elite UK REIT has highlighted the positioning’s proximity to nationwide fibre networks and transatlantic subsea cables, in addition to to nationwide electrical energy infrastructure, as key elements in its alternative of location.
Planning permission permits the information centre constructing to succeed in as much as 14 metres in peak, with a rooftop cooling construction rising to twenty metres. Assist infrastructure will embody a substation compound, safety workplace, plant amenities, parking, drainage and landscaping.
Securing ample energy capability has been a notable milestone for the scheme. The corporate has utilized for and been provided as much as 120 MVA of energy for the positioning, a degree of provide that would help power‑intensive knowledge centre operations as soon as constructed.
Regional significance amid rising demand
“The planning approval at present marks one other milestone in our price creation technique,” mentioned Mr Joshua Liaw, Chief Government Officer of the supervisor, in a press release.
“It demonstrates our potential to determine distinctive attributes and potential of every of our price. We are actually in a robust place to actively discover numerous strategic choices for Peel Park, Blackpool to maximise worth for our Unitholders.
“With demand for synthetic intelligence and cloud‑based mostly applied sciences persevering with to develop, we’re excited in regards to the prospect of a proposed knowledge centre in Peel Park, Blackpool in supporting regional financial growth and inward funding.”
Whereas Blackpool shouldn’t be historically a significant knowledge centre hub in contrast with established markets similar to London and the South East, the council has been searching for to draw digital infrastructure firms to the world, together with by means of its Silicon Sands initiative on the close by Blackpool Airport Enterprise Zone.
