Plans for an 850-acre data centre in the Devon countryside have provoked anger among local residents, who say the development would be sited barely a mile from their homes and would dramatically alter the character of the rural area. The scale of the proposed facility has become a flashpoint in the wider debate over Britain's rapid expansion of data centre infrastructure, which is needed to support growing demand for cloud computing and artificial intelligence but is increasingly clashing with concerns over land use, countryside preservation and local amenity in areas such as Devon.

Residents quoted in reports describe the proposed site as vastly out of scale with the surrounding idyllic landscape, with the sheer footprint of 850 acres cited as dwarfing the rural setting. The article does not detail the developer, exact location or planning stage, but the headline and local reaction indicate the scheme is already generating significant opposition ahead of any formal decision.