Plans to build a data centre the height of three double decker buses at the old Molins tobacco machine factory site have moved forward.

Virtus is constructing four data centre buildings with ‘green roofs’ on the 50-acre former industrial site off Haw Lane, Saunderton near High Wycombe.

Three of the buildings – each housing huge banks of computers – will be two storeys high, with the fourth three storeys and up to 16.85m high.

Factory buildings have already been cleared from the site, while an on-site electricity substation is currently being built along with vehicle access, approximately 150 car parking spaces and security fences and gates.

Planning permission was granted in 2008, but the data centre company is now trying to change the noise levels allowed permitted from fans and other machinery once the campus is operational.

The company’s agent said: “The original wording, as it stands, renders compliance with the operational noise thresholds unachievable and as such the approved development undeliverable.”

Its application to alter the original plans was sent to Buckinghamshire Council on Friday, the day votes from the local elections were being counted.

The company’s newly proposed wording says noise from its day centres would not be allowed to exceed background sound levels by more than three decibels.

But the originally approved plans from 2008 said noise levels at the site must remain at least five decibels below background noise levels.

The restrictions are to help ensure the peace of several residential properties neighbouring the old Molins site, including one that is 20 metres away.

Noise concerns over the new data centre campus were previously raised by Bledlow-cum-Saunderton Parish Council in 2022.

In a letter to Bucks Council, it said: “The Parish Council is concerned about noise levels as they affect noise sensitive receptors, especially dwellings in the area around the data centre, as all the proposed buildings are likely to produce noise.”

The authority also said it was ‘concerned’ about noise from the site’s substation after it was moved closer to properties in Haw Lane.

But in its application last week, Virtus included an acoustic report it said would give the council ‘confidence that resultant noise will be managed and controlled to an acceptable, pre-agreed level’.

The 58-page document specified measures to reduce noise pollution from the data centre such as barriers and ‘acoustic attenuation packs’ for the site’s chiller units.

Last year, Virtus said its Saunderton development was a ‘state-of-the-art data centre campus’ driven by the ‘proliferation of cloud and artificial intelligence applications’.

In a statement, the firm said the site was expected to be ‘ready for service’ in the second quarter of 2026.

An office building and the ballroom on the old Molins site will be retained and refurbished under the plans.

 

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