Plans Filed for Three-Building Data Center Campus in Northumberland, UK
June 19, 2026
Plans Filed for Three-Building Data Center Campus in Northumberland, UK
A new data center campus has been proposed in Northumberland, northeast England, marking another major development in the region’s growing digital infrastructure sector. Wansbeck Regeneration Ltd has submitted a planning application to Northumberland County Council for a three-building data center campus on a 28-hectare site northwest of High Brocklands in West Sleekburn. The project, known as the West Sleekburn Data Centre campus, would total up to 356,500 square meters (approximately 3.8 million square feet) of floor space.
The proposal includes two on-site substations and a bridging power solution using natural gas-powered fuel cells. According to planning documents, the fuel cells would provide around 90MW of capacity, delivering an estimated 50MW of IT load. The company described the fuel cells as a “bridging solution” that would be removed once the site is fully operational. Originally, Wansbeck Regeneration had planned four buildings totaling 451MW, but revised the scheme during the pre-application process.
The site sits within an AI Growth Zone, a designation that the company highlighted as a key opportunity. “The proposals represent a significant opportunity to build on the location of the site within an AI Growth Zone by providing substantial inward investment within Northumberland, and generating significant direct and indirect job opportunities within the local area,” the company said in its planning documents. The land was previously part of a GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) pharmaceutical manufacturing facility that operated in Cambois from 1971 until around 2004.
The West Sleekburn campus is located roughly one mile north of a separate data center project planned by QTS at the former Blyth Power Station. That project, covering 540,000 square meters (5.8 million square feet), could support up to ten data center buildings totaling 720MW at full build-out. News of the West Sleekburn proposal first emerged earlier this year, though few details were available at the time. Few public details about Wansbeck Regeneration itself have been disclosed.
Source: datacenterdynamics
