Summary
- Manor Farm West proposes three data centre buildings on 23.5 hectares near Poyle.
- Planning documents assume 216MW of installed IT load and 141 emergency generators.
- The scheme would require an approximately 8.6km grid connection to the Laleham substation.
Plans have been lodged for three more data centre buildings on green-belt land near Poyle, extending development pressure around one of the UK’s most established and power-constrained data centre markets.
The Manor Farm West proposal covers 23.5 hectares west of Poyle Road and includes three data centre buildings, associated substations, offices, cooling plant, backup generation, fuel storage, landscaping, drainage works, and road access.
Planning documents reviewed in the local application process assume an installed IT load of 72MW per building, giving a combined 216MW. The scheme also includes 141 emergency backup generators — 47 for each building — and about 124,000 sq m of floorspace.
The applicant is Manor Farm Propco, associated with the wider Manor Farm data centre development promoted by Tritax Big Box.
Power infrastructure extends well beyond the site
The development would need an underground electricity connection running about 8.6km to the Laleham substation. Separate planning applications are required for that cable route.
That connection illustrates why the planning footprint of a large data centre increasingly extends far beyond the data halls. A campus of this scale needs not only buildings and cooling plant but also substations, cable corridors, generators, fuel logistics, water and drainage systems, and road access.
The proposal sits near Heathrow and the Slough availability zone, where operators benefit from dense fibre connectivity and proximity to London customers but face intense competition for land and electricity capacity.
Tritax has previously described the wider Manor Farm location as a “power-first” data centre development opportunity. Its existing plans have included secured grid connections and a phased approach intended to bring capacity to the market over several years.
Manor Farm West would add another large block of potential demand. The application’s 216MW assumed IT load exceeds the capacity of many established UK data centre campuses and would make the timing and deliverability of the grid connection central to the scheme.
Green-belt development raises another constraint
The site is former farmland in the green belt, adding planning and landscape questions to the infrastructure case. The application includes building heights of around 31 metres where rooftop cooling plant is counted, as well as river and drainage works.
Backup generation is also likely to attract scrutiny. The planning material uses diesel as the worst-case assumption while indicating that cleaner fuels could be used where technically and commercially feasible.
Large generator fleets remain common in data centre design because sites need a resilient source of power during grid failures or electrical maintenance. At the same time, local air-quality, noise, carbon, and permitting requirements are increasing pressure on operators to reduce testing hours, use alternative fuels, or supplement generators with batteries.
The scale of the Manor Farm West generator provision shows how rapidly those questions grow with campus size. Even equipment intended to operate only during emergencies has to be assessed against the cumulative impact of more than one hundred units.
The scheme is currently a planning proposal rather than committed capacity. Public consultation and the planning process will determine whether it can proceed, while the grid connection will need its own approvals and delivery programme.
Slough’s attraction has always been the depth of its connectivity and customer base. The Manor Farm projects show the other side of that maturity: finding enough land, power, and planning headroom for the next generation of large facilities is becoming progressively more complicated.
