Huge data centre planned for Cardiff ‘called in’ by Welsh Government

Martin Shipton

Opponents of plans to build a huge data centre on the eastern side of Cardiff are celebrating a victory after the Welsh Government “called in” the application.

The decision came less than 24 hours before Cardiff Council’s planning committee was due to meet. Campaigners feared councillors might accept officers’ recommendation that the project should go ahead.

The plan is to shut down a park-and-ride facility linked to the University Hospital of Wales and build the data centre on the site.

Residents’ concerns include the data centre’s impact on climate change, the loss of the park-and-ride service, air quality, lighting, noise, flood risk and water use.

Cardiff Council has an agreement to sell the site to private-sector developer Curtis Hall, which may power the site with gas until it can get a connection to the national grid.

If built, the data centre would have up to 30,292 square metres of floor space, with provision for a 49.9 MW temporary energy centre.

Members of Cardiff Council’s planning committee were emailed on Wednesday evening by head of planning Simon Gilbert. He wrote: “I am very sorry to be emailing late in the day, but I found out this afternoon that the Welsh Government had ‘called in’ the planning application for the data centre.

“As such we will not be having the planning committee meeting tomorrow.

“I am truly sorry for the inconvenience and short notice.”

Llanrumney independent councillor Keith Jones welcomed the Plaid Cymru Welsh Government’s decision to call in the hybrid planning application.

A letter from the Local Government and Planning Directorate, dated 11 November 2026, said Siân Gwenllian, the Cabinet Minister for Local Government, Housing and Planning, had directed that the application should be determined by the Welsh Ministers under section 77 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.

Demolition

The application proposes the demolition of existing structures and redevelopment of the site to provide a data centre and associated buildings, structures, car parking, access roads, a bridge across the Rhymney River, site-wide landscaping and associated works at Cardiff East Park and Ride.

The Welsh Government has concluded that the proposal raises issues of more than local importance. These include potential conflict with national policy on transport, energy and flood risk, as well as the scale of the environmental impact and the level of public controversy generated beyond the immediate locality.

Cllr Jones said: “Victory tonight for the community and East Cardiff. It’s not over. But tonight the decision has been taken out of the hands of the Labour-run Cardiff council.

“I will be making detailed submissions to the Welsh Government Planning Inspector for our community. We fight to win.”

‘Huge win’

Pentwyn Lib Dem councillor Joe Carter, who has been fighting the proposals for 11 months, said: “This is a huge win for our community. We have been saying since May that the new government should call this in and take the decision out of the hands of the council.

“The council owns the land and has supported this project. It was therefore hard to see how they could judge this independently despite the professionalism of planning officers.

“Across the world communities are rising up against data centres being built in their locality. The idea of removing a park and ride to build an energy intensive data centre goes against all of the council’s environmental credentials, and the Well-being of Future Generations Act. The minister can now look at the evidence, reject this and put a moratorium on any further massive data centres in Wales.”