"It's just hideously inappropriate," said Stewart Lewis, 70, who lives in one of the converted houses in the 600-year-old Tithe Barn. "I think any reasonable person anywhere would say, 'Hang on, they want a data center? This isn't the place for it.'"
Residents of Abbots Langley, 18 miles (30 kilometers) northwest of London, worry the facility will strain local resources and create noise and traffic that damages the character of the quiet village."
As the artificial intelligence boom fuels demand for cloud-based computing from server farms around the world, such projects are pitting business considerations, national priorities and local interests against each other.
A proposal to build a data center on a field across the road was rejected by local authorities amid fierce opposition from villagers. But it's getting a second chance from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's government.
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