Plans in for next stage of £10bn Cambois data centre
QTS and Renaissance Land have lodged reserved matters applications covering the remaining enabling works required to bring forward the hyperscale data centre campus on the former Blyth Power Station site in Northumberland.
The applications, lodged with Northumberland Council and adjoining LPA North Tyneside, cover Phases B and C of the site’s preparation works and follow outline planning consent granted last year for a major data centre development comprising up to 10 buildings with a total gross internal area of 6m sq ft.
The wider scheme, located at Cambois near Blyth, will also include supporting infrastructure such as a substation, emergency power generation facilities, and associated operational buildings.
The latest submissions are intended to unlock the remainder of the development site following approval of Phase A enabling works last August.
Phase B focuses on preparing land for the construction of data centres 03 and 04. Works include site clearance, earthworks, excavation and treatment of existing ground materials, piling platform construction, piling operations, temporary drainage installations, haul roads, laydown areas, and construction parking facilities. Strategic landscaping and invasive species management are also included within the scope.
Phase C covers similar site preparation activities across other parts of the development area, alongside the removal and reuse of pulverised fuel ash (PFA) mounds that remain from the site’s former power station operations.
This phase will also include temporary infrastructure, landscaping works, and ground remediation activities required ahead of future construction.
Alongside the reserved matters submissions, separate applications have been lodged seeking approval of a number of planning conditions covering phasing, construction management, drainage, noise, dust control, invasive species management, and environmental management measures.
Quod is the planning consultant on the project, which is being financed by Renaissance Land (owned by Blackstone) and will be developed and operated by Quality Technology Services. A final completion date for the scheme is estimated for 2035.
Blyth Power Station operated from the 1950s until 2001, and was cleared in 2003. Since then, it has sat as brownfield land with coal deposits remaining beneath the site.
It was previously earmarked for a £3.8bn Britishvolt gigafactory site for electric vehicle battery production, until the company went into administration in 2023.
The wider site is approximately 250-acres, located to the west and south of Cambois village, around 30km north of Newcastle.
