Welsh AI Data Center Plan Rejected by Anglesey Council
April 28, 2026
Welsh AI Data Center Plan Rejected by Anglesey Council
A proposal to transform a former chemical plant in North Wales into an artificial intelligence data center has been blocked by the local council, highlighting ongoing tensions between national digital infrastructure ambitions and local planning priorities.
Anglesey County Council rejected the planning application submitted by Carbon3.ai for the site of the former Octel factory at Amlwch Port in Anglesey, according to the North Wales Chronicle. The company had filed the application in January, seeking a change of use to repurpose existing buildings on the 50-acre industrial site for an AI data center. The Octel facility, which produced bromine from seawater, had been vacant since 2004 after more than five decades of operation.
Carbon3.ai argued that the project aligned with the UK government’s designation of Wales as an AI Growth Zone—a policy initiative that identifies regions where data center developments are encouraged through priority power access and favorable business rates. Despite this, the council determined the proposal did not meet local planning criteria.
The rejection is not an isolated case. In February, Edinburgh Council’s planning committee similarly turned down a data center project on the former site of the Royal Bank of Scotland headquarters. Industry observers note that community engagement shortcomings are increasingly stalling data center approvals across the UK. According to a study by British engineering consultancy Hoare Lea, the average time to secure planning consent for a data center now stands at 490 days, with nine out of 33 applications examined in the report ultimately rejected.
The decision underscores broader challenges for the UK’s data center sector, as local resistance and lengthy approval processes threaten to slow the expansion of AI-ready infrastructure despite strong government backing.
Source: datacenterdynamics
