Facebooks clonee plans appealed to bord pleanala

Plans by social media giant Facebook to build a €200m data centre at Clonee are set to be delayed after a planning appeal was lodged against the granting of planning permission for the development.

Runways Information Services Ltd, based in Dublin, was granted permission by Meath County Council in July for the development at lands of around 220 acres, within the townlands of Portan, Gunnocks and Clonee, bounded by the R147, the Kilbride Road, The Mayne and Damastown Industrial Park.

It was proposed that the data centre campus be built in two phases within 10 years.

The first phase will involve construction of two data centre buildings containing eight data halls with a gross floor area of 50,000sq metres and with a data capacity of 36mW per building, together with associated mechanical and electrical spaces and parking.

Phase two will include the construction of a third single storey data centre building containing four data halls with a gross floor area of 25,400sq metres and a data capacity of 36mW and ancillary works.

Facebook is reported to be investing over €200 million in only its second European data centre. The company has built its first data centre in Sweden already.

The appeal, prepared by Hughes Planning and Development Consultants, was lodged on behalf of John and Julie Creagh, Kilbride Road, Clonee. The submission states that they are not objecting to the development and welcome it in the context of the growth of the information technology sector in Ireland and the jobs that will be created. However, it states they do not believe their concerns were adequately addressed by the planning authority.

Among the issues raised are the increase in traffic volume and the potential traffic hazards due to volume of traffic from construction staff and also heavy goods vehicles during the construction phase.

It requests that it be made a condition that any upgrade of the local road network be completed prior to the commencement of construction.

It also raises the issue of the scale of the buildings in proximity to existing houses, leading to loss of residential amenity. The appeal states that while the application describes them as single storey, it points out that at almost 16m in height the buildings are equivalent to the height of three five-storey apartment blocks.

The appeal also suggests that site security needs further examination, outlines issues regarding the noise during operation, the potential ill effects of electomagnetic radiation and drainage issues.

“Our client is supportive of the proposed development, in principle, recognising the economic benefits both locally and nationally. However, it is considered by reason of the site layout, including the building scale treatment, together with construction phase traffic and noise levels associated with the operational stage, the proposed development would cause an unacceptable level of detriment to the residential amenity of local residents, including that of our client. In addition, given the purpose of the development, there is concerns with regards to the health risk associated with electromagnetic radiation.

“Overall, the application, as submitted, is considered to be inadequate in a number of aspects and we request that the board considers the matters raised in this appeal and secure adequate technical information from the application prior to permitting the development subject to modification and revised conditions,” it says.

The case is due to be decided by 22nd December next.