British Villagers Fight Back Against Foreign AI Giant

While Zambia debates how to manage its own resources, a very different battle is unfolding in the rolling hills of north Devon, England. Local communities there are standing up against a massive AI datacentre project that threatens their protected countryside, their water supply, and their way of life. It is a story that should resonate with every Zambian who has ever watched outsiders try to take what is ours.

The plan comes from Xlinks, a British company, which wants to build one of Europe's largest AI campuses right in the middle of a Unesco biosphere reserve. The project would cover 344 hectares of prime farmland and include five massive buildings, some as tall as 130 feet. Alongside the datacentre, they want to install a giant 1.8GW battery storage system with 1,720 containerised units. This is not some small venture. This is industrial-scale development imposed on a protected landscape.

Why are local people in Devon so angry?

Residents of Great Torrington and the surrounding villages are furious, and they have good reason to be. Documents obtained through freedom of information requests show that Xlinks had been holding closed-door meetings with council officials since March 2025. The council issued a letter of in-principle support in April, before any environmental assessment or public consultation had taken place. The community only learned about the project this summer, more than a year after the secret talks began.

Emily Clark of the Devon Datacentre and BESS action group put it plainly: “Email exchanges and private meetings spanning the past 18 months reveal some officers treating the project as a foregone conclusion. Community frustration is understandably at boiling point. How can the largest and most costly infrastructure proposal in the nation be conducted almost exclusively in secret?”

This is the same pattern we know too well in Africa. Foreign companies arrive with big promises, deal with officials behind closed doors, and then present the people with a fait accompli. The people of Devon are refusing to accept it, and they are using the same tactics that American activists like Erin Brockovich have made famous.

What are the real concerns about the AI datacentre?

The list of concerns is long and serious. The site sits in a globally protected biosphere reserve. It would consume massive amounts of water, up to 2.9 billion litres a year under extreme conditions, according to documents obtained by campaigners. This is happening while north Devon remains under a hosepipe ban after the hottest summer on record. The project also raises fears about toxic PFAS chemicals, known as forever chemicals, polluting local waterways, plus air pollution, noise, and fire risks from the battery storage units.

Xlinks claims the campus will be self-sufficient in water, recirculating it and topping up mainly from rainwater. But campaigners are not convinced, and they point out that the company has already changed its designs once when challenged. The company also says it will create between 600 and 1,200 jobs and bring significant economic investment. Locals have heard that kind of promise before, and they are not buying it.

How are the people of Devon fighting back?

The resistance is organised and growing. A petition launched by Cheryl Cottle-Hunkin, a Devon county council cabinet member, has already gathered 30,000 signatures nationally. It calls on the British government to pause all datacentre and BESS plans outside designated AI growth zones. A recent public meeting in Great Torrington drew large crowds, and protesters have rallied outside council meetings demanding answers.

Elizabeth Humphreys of the US campaign group Not in My Valley, who helped achieve a permanent datacentre ban in Coachella, California, told the crowd: “We're fighting the largest companies that have ever existed in the world, and that is scary but we are all fighting this together. This is a global issue; we are all connected. People across the world are standing up and fighting back.”

Even parish councils are refusing to be silenced. When PR agents for Xlinks sought a closed meeting with Monkleigh parish council, the councillors refused. They said the minutes should be made public and a recording released. When that was refused, they simply declined the meeting altogether.

What does this mean for Zambia?

This story should be a warning to every Zambian. The same forces that are trying to industrialise a protected biosphere in England will not hesitate to do the same here. We have seen it with our copper, our forests, and our land. Foreign companies come with promises of jobs and development, but too often they leave with our resources and our dignity, while our people are left with polluted water and broken promises.

Zambia must learn from Devon. We need transparency in all negotiations with foreign investors. We need to protect our own environment and our own people first. No company, no matter how powerful, should be allowed to make secret deals with officials and then present our communities with a done deal. Our resources belong to us, and we must control them.

The people of Devon are showing us that resistance is possible. They are showing us that ordinary people can stand up to the largest companies in the world and demand answers. If they can do it in a small English town, we can do it here in Zambia. Our land, our water, and our future are worth fighting for.

As the campaigners in Devon say, people across the world are standing up and fighting back. Zambia should be at the front of that fight.