Plans for £9.5bn data centre next to Universal park

Plans are under way to build a data centre next to the proposed Universal theme park in Bedfordshire.

The 1.5 million sq ft (139,355 sq m) site at the former quarry of Quest Pit near Stewartby has planning permission for a film studio.

But David Kohler, director of Quest Park which owns Quest Pit, said they were applying for a change of use to a data centre which the Secretary of State said was of "national significance".

The former Luton Town Football Club chairman said it would cost £9.5bn to build and would be "one of the largest (in the UK) in terms of power".

He added that it would take two to three years to change the permission for the data centre through a development consent order (DCO) application.

It would then take a further two years to build, but he said he believe the Universal theme park "will be finished before we start".

Data centres are the physical facilities that store, process and run large amounts of data and software which power the internet.

There are currently estimated to be about 500 data centres across the UK.

The proposed data centre off Ampthill Road would provide up to 1,145 jobs and comprise four data centre buildings with a proposed electrical power of up to 720 megawatts.

Each building would be "powered individually" said Kohler, by a proposed gas generating station on the campus.

The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government was satisfied the proposal would "be important in driving growth in the economy".

On its website, Quest Park said it "would meet around a third of the UK's current data centre demand and offer nearly 2.9 times the capacity of the country's largest existing facility".

A digital training facility is also proposed for students of Science., Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) for education and research.

Conservative Sue Clark, Central Bedfordshire councillor for Cranfield and Marston Moretaine, expressed concerns about the data centre.

"We already have two nationally significant major infrastructure projects; Universal and East West Rail, and the Marston Valley 5,000-housing development in a very small area of the Marston Vale," she said.

"This development cannot be considered in isolation - which is the risk of going through a DCO process."

She added her other concerns "in this location must include access to power and water, traffic and construction traffic".

Kohler, who is also a property developer, was behind the ill-fated plans in the 1990s to bring a futuristic stadium for Luton Town Football Club.

The Kohlerdome was granted outline planning permission but was ultimately rejected by the government.

In 2007 plans for the world's largest aquarium called Nirah (National Institute for Research into Aquatic Habitats) were approved on the Quest Pit site.

However, a lack of investment and delays led to nothing being built and planning permission expired.

Kohler said he bought Quest Pit in 2015 with a view to turning it into a floating solar farm, which he described as a "crazy idea".

The film studios on the site were approved by Central Bedfordshire Council in 2023.

Its construction was halted two years later in 2025 when the developer behind the project closed down.

Kohler described the data centre as "critical national infrastructure which will bring investment to Bedfordshire in a similar way to Universal".

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