Slough's Data Centre Boom Sparks Community Opposition Over Environmental Impact
Slough has become Europe’s second-largest data-centre hub, prompting a local campaign to demand environmental impact assessments as more facilities are approved.
Slough, a town 20 miles west of London, hosts roughly 40 data centres, making it Europe’s largest hub after Ashburn, Virginia, and a key node for cloud services, finance and AI. The concentration has drawn criticism from locals who formed Slough Against Data Centres, citing concerns about heat-island formation, noise, diesel-generator emissions and water use on green-belt sites. Campaign founder Ambily Banerjee, a former UCL researcher now at GSK, urges the borough council to carry out a cumulative environmental assessment.
The council and a Microsoft spokesperson stress ongoing community consultation and claim utilities will remain unaffected. Nevertheless, a 20-acre hyperscale centre was approved in June by planning minister Matthew Pennycook, highlighting tension between national growth targets for data-centre capacity and local opposition.
Why it matters
The story shows how rapid tech infrastructure growth can clash with community health and environmental concerns.
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