Call-in request for 3.6m sq ft data centre campus

Gwelyfenai has put forward its plans to transform the 102-acre former Ferodo site off the Menai Strait in Caernarfon into a critical piece of national digital infrastructure.

However, those plans could hit a road block, with the Welsh Government confirming it had received a request to call-in the application. The government said that it was processing the request and would make a decision as to whether or not to take on the application after it had fully considered the request.

The Caernarfon data centre has its fair share of critics, including Liz Saville Roberts MP who has criticised the project for the impact it may have on the local landscape and wildlife.

Gwelyfenai’s plans for the site include an ecological corridor, rain gardens, attenuation basins, tree and hedgerow planting, and bird and bat boxes.

The campus itself would span 3.6m sq ft of gross external space, as well as 147 generators and a substation. The existing buildings on the site would be demolished and the land regraded to allow for the redevelopment, which has been designed by TTSP Architects.

Gwelyfanai’s project would create 210 jobs once the data centres were operational, according to a planning statement by Carney Sweeney.

In addition to TTSP and Carney Sweeney, the project team includes Ridge, TACP, Treescene, Savills Earth, Sphere Design, Copper Consultancy, Tetra Tech, RPS, TIR Collective, and SLR Consulting.

To learn more about the scheme, search reference C25/0740/20/EIA on Gwynedd County Council’s planning portal.