Hundreds protest over data centre plans — SkimNews
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- Canolfan Ddata Menai is proposing a data centre complex on a 101-acre site between Caernarfon and Y Felinheli, Gwynedd, claiming it would create more than 900 construction jobs and 200 permanent roles on long-derelict land.
- About 300 people gathered in Caernarfon to oppose the plans, and a separate petition against the development has already drawn more than 22,500 signatures.
- Ernest Dyson, who lives near the proposed site, condemned the project as "basically the destruction of the most beautiful part of the Menai Strait" and framed locals as "custodians" of the area.
- Plaid Cymru MP Liz Saville Roberts (Dwyfor Meirionnydd) said data centres are needed but must be "the right size, the right technology and in the right places," warning against repeating Wales's history of extractive industries "that left nothing behind."
- Canolfan Ddata Menai countered that the project would preserve "continued use" of the Lôn Las Menai cycleway and footpath and would have "no undue impact" on the Menai Strait and its associated site of special scientific interest (SSSI).
Why it matters: The fight turns on whether a 101-acre parcel along the protected Menai Strait — currently long-derelict — becomes a hyperscale facility or stays undeveloped, with developers citing more than 1,100 jobs combined and opponents citing ecological damage. A petition past 22,500 signatures and a Plaid Cymru MP invoking Wales's extractive-industry legacy have already pushed the dispute beyond local planning into a wider political test over how data infrastructure is sited.
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