The British government has conceded it should not have approved a campus near London's M25 orbital motorway and that the decision should be quashed, following a legal challenge by campaign group Foxglove.

The non-profit filed its challenge last year after the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government overturned Buckinghamshire Council's rejection of the Woodlands Park site near Iver. The local authority had [1]blocked the project on grounds it would significantly alter the area's character and appearance.

UK prepared to throw planning rules out the window for massive datacenters [2]READ MORE

The UK's former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner decided to [3]recover two planning appeals regarding server farms in 2024, one of which was the Woodlands Park project, in line with government policy that building the facilities would benefit the economy.

The actual decision to grant the appeal and allow planning permission was given in July last year by the Minister of State for Housing and Planning, Matthew Pennycook MP, on behalf of the Secretary of State.

Foxglove says the government now accepts the decision must be quashed, claiming officials concede there were insufficient measures to hold the developer and any future site occupier of the site to environmental impact commitments.

[4]London grid crunch delays new housing amid datacenter boom

[5]Datacenters planned for Scotland could end up draining a loch of power

[6]Britain plots atomic reboot as datacenter demand surges

[7]Brits to help foot power bill for datacenters under government AI plans

[8]Britain's AI datacenter plans face energy, planning, investment challenges

[9]Objections to datacenter builds may be overruled now they are 'Critical National Infrastructure'

"It shouldn't take us having to drag the government to court for them to admit their decision to back Big Tech's polluting datacenters was fundamentally wrong," said Foxglove co-executive director Rosa Curling.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government confirmed the U-turn and told The Register it would not be appropriate to comment further as the case is still subject to live litigation.

[10]

We also approached the developer of the site, Greystoke Land Ltd, for its reaction and if it intended to take any action over this decision, but the company declined to comment.

[11]

Greystoke Land Ltd is behind several other datacenter projects, including one near Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire, which is about 20 miles from the Woodlands Park site and also close to the M25.

This was likewise [12]granted planning permission by the government , overturning a previous rejection by the local authority, Three Rivers District Council.

[13]

Other projects are also clustered near to London and the M25, including a massive facility being [14]built for colocation biz Equinix at South Mimms, and a newly opened [15]Google datacenter at Waltham Cross. ®

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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/10/datacenter_plans_blocked/

[2] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/13/uk_datacenter_planning_rules/

[3] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/09/uk_datacenter_new_govt_planning/

[4] https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/02/london_datacenter_new_homes/

[5] https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/04/scottish_datacenter_power/

[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/25/uk_nuclear_power_reform/

[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/18/uk_ai_growth_zones/

[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/24/britains_ai_datacenter_plans_face/

[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/17/objections_to_datacenter_builds_cni/

[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aXNUz6y3IhlD6cYrxJ55CgAAAtA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0

[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aXNUz6y3IhlD6cYrxJ55CgAAAtA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/16/uk_overrules_local_council_approve_datacenter/

[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aXNUz6y3IhlD6cYrxJ55CgAAAtA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[14] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/30/equinix_datacenter_hertfordshire/

[15] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/16/google_hertfordshire_datacenter/

[16] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/