Plans have ben submitted for a new, £250m data centre in Salford in what could be a huge boost for technology in the city.
Digital Land & Development has lodged an application for a 66,000 sq ft facility on the former Whites’ recycling centre between Eccles and Irlam.
If approved, the site will be located on a six-acre industrial site off Liverpool Road, just north of Salford Community Stadium in the Eccles area. The application by DLD (Salford) Ltd could also create new jobs and attract more companies to the area.
The project would feature 12,000 sq ft of offices, a 56,000 sq ft data hall, and 63,500 sq ft of plant.
The data hall will reach eight metres at its highest point and will be set back from Liverpool Road. The front of house facilities – reception and offices – would be contained within a lower rise part of the scheme.
Plans say the building would be a physical storage space for digital data, which is used for “every element of modern life” from using the internet to advanced technology such as artificial intelligence.
They also claim it would also offer benefits to the city and wider region, and could be used by councils, or to support services such as transport and education.
Planning documents submitted with the application say that the UK needs “significant levels of new data centre capacity” to keep pace with the rapid changes happening in the world of technology.
Philip Kaye, co-founder of fellow Greater Manchester data centre firm Vespertec, said: “Greater Manchester has long been fertile ground for data centre companies to bloom. I’ve spent nearly two decades in the industry, watching Manchester slowly but surely grow into a fully mature hub for data centre technologies. I’ve never seen anything like the last 12 months, with growth in every direction and the eyes of the nation looking to places like Stockport and Salford for leadership on major digital infrastructure projects.
“Years of hard work from some of the country’s most visionary providers is now starting to bear fruit, and everywhere you look in Manchester, there’s a world-beating data centre project just around the corner: Kao broke ground on its new data centre in October, and recently the government announced plans to pilot a new heat reuse scheme in Stockport data centres.
“Gone are the days when areas like Greater Manchester were overlooked by the tech industry. We have the skills, the infrastructure, and an impressive track record with successful and innovative schemes. With local authorities now fully on board and in the know, nowhere is better placed to meet the skyrocketing demand for digital infrastructure and ensure that the future of the industry benefits everyone.”
