We, the undersigned, call on the Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council’s Land and Property and Strategic Assets Sub-Committee to immediately halt and reject the proposed sale of publicly owned land for the Coleraine campus data centre expansion.
Advancing massive, high-impact industrial tech infrastructure that will swallow up hundreds of megawatts of power—all while operating in a regulatory vacuum without an updated Local Development Plan Strategy—is a reckless abdication of our council’s planning duties.
This project represents a glaring double standard for our region. While local farming families and rural livelihoods face intense pressure and heavy-handed regulatory burdens, the council is rolling out the red carpet for an international tech corporation whose facilities will place an unprecedented strain on local resources. As highlighted, the sheer scale of the energy demand defies basic common sense: powering just a single large-scale data centre would require roughly 30 wind farms the size of the controversial Benbradagh proposal, or 125 turbines, each at a height of a 50-storey building, would be required to power just one data centre, placing an impossible burden on our local energy grid and landscape.
We demand transparency, democratic accountability and proper public consultation rather than having monumental land-zoning decisions quietly pushed through sub-committees. We urge our local representatives to refuse this land expansion, escalate the matter to the full council ensuring that every independent impact assessment, including grid stability, community impact and landscape protection is fully completed before any further action is taken.
