In a sleepy corner of rural Wiltshire, five retired residents have joined together to oppose plans for a data centre in their backyard, prompting comparisons to Richard Osman’s band of sleuths in The Thursday Murder Club. Morgyn Davies assembled the group, which includes a former Ministry of Defence (MoD) civil servant, an Army engineer, an accountant, a recruitment expert and a nurse, to fight the development of a data centre that has been described as important for obscure public security reasons. Rather than taking direct inspiration from Osman’s murder-mystery novels, in which retirement home residents use skills from their previous careers to solve mysteries that elude the police, the gang has dubbed themselves the Neston and Westwells Action Group, or NWAG.
They live in the tiny village of Westwells, with population of around 500, in the shadow of MoD Corsham, which serves as the UK military’s cyber headquarters. Information stored at the site has been classified as “top secret”, including that contained in its five data centres, soon to become six, with plans for a further 18-metre-high structure in the heart of the village.
Rather than opposing the secretive nature of the facility, villagers are worried about the development’s impact on the local environment and its further imposition on their treasured landscape.
Like in Osman’s best-selling book, members of NWAG have tapped into their dormant capabilities to help fight the plans.
Retired HR consultant Natalie Williams, 58, has taken it upon herself to pass the group’s research on to Wiltshire Council and challenge tech firm developer ARK’s planning submissions.
Meanwhile, Mr Davies, who previously worked as a salvage officer for the MoD, has spent extensive time researching the impact of the new data centre on the village’s flood risk.
“By removing all the trees, levelling the surface and basically wanting to cover it in concrete and buildings, you are now generating a situation where there is nowhere left for the water to go,” he told The Telegraph.
“Initially, they said: ‘You can’t stop us, because we have the MoD and the Government behind us. Then they said: ‘You can’t stop us, because we’re just too big.’ And then they said: ‘You can’t stop us because the Government says anyone can build a data centre wherever they want to’. Well, that’s not right.”
Despite the best efforts of passionate local groups like NWAG, the Government has remained determined to push through planning projects like data centres in a bid to boost the economy since coming to power last year.
The Prime Minister has pledged to make Britain a “world leader” in data centres, with related legislation set to make it more difficult for residents to stand in the way of major infrastructure projects – something Chancellor Rachel Reeves says is “holding back economic growth”.
A spokesperson for ARK told The Telegraph that the site’s plans would include “an extensive drainage strategy involving sumps and attenuation ponds that will build on the robust drainage system already in place across the estate”.
The firm has been contacted for further comment.