Spodegreen Data Centre Near Lymm: 60 Hectares, 350 Jobs

A developer is proposing a data centre campus on about 60 hectares of land at Spodegreen, three and a half miles east of Lymm. The site is south of Lymm Road, north of the M56 and west of the A556, at postcode WA14 4TP.

The developer, Innova, set out the plans on its Spodegreen Data Centre website. It held its first public event at High Legh Village Hall on Wednesday 30 September. It is still taking comments.

The land is in Cheshire East, in the parish of Little Bollington with Agden, not in Warrington borough. Cheshire East Council would decide any planning application, not Warrington. But the site sits on the main road between Lymm and the motorway, and the developer’s own pages present it as serving “Cheshire, Warrington and Greater Manchester”.

What is proposed

Innova’s proposals page describes a “campus-style” site where several data centre operators could cluster. It lists:

• data halls holding the computer equipment and plant
• offices and security buildings
• a district heating energy centre
• a “Living Lab” educational space for training, apprentices and STEM events
• a solar array on land west of Coe Lane, plus rooftop solar and solar canopies over parts of the car parks
• large areas of landscaping and green infrastructure

The campus would connect to the National Grid transmission network. The plans also include electricity substations and backup power generation. Cooling would be a hybrid air and closed-loop water system, which the developer says keeps water use to a minimum.

The developer has not published how much power the campus would draw, how tall the buildings would be, or how many there would be. It says site surveys are under way and the detail will come at a second event.

Access off Lymm Road

The main entrance would use the existing access off Lymm Road and Chester Road.

Innova also wants a second entrance further west along Lymm Road, which is the Lymm side of the site. It says this would “only be used for essential circumstances”. It does not say what those are.

Jobs and benefits

The developer says the scheme would create about 350 full-time equivalent jobs “across construction and operations”. It does not split that figure between building the site and running it.

Its other claims for the scheme:

• heat from the data centre could warm nearby homes and businesses, through the district heating centre, and Innova is looking for local users of that heat
• business rates for Cheshire East Council
• better fibre internet connectivity in the area
• a Community Benefit Fund, which it says is “currently being explored”
• apprenticeships and training funded with colleges and universities in the region

Where the plans are up to

There is no planning application yet. The developer’s timeline says:

Innova says it will keep promoting the site through Cheshire East’s Local Plan process.

What it means for you

If you live in Lymm, Little Bollington, Agden or High Legh, this is the earliest point to have a say. Anything you send now goes to the developer, not the council. It can still shape the design before an application is lodged.

The Have Your Say page gives three ways to comment:

• an online feedback map, where you click on where you live and fill in a form
• email: contact@spodegreendc.com
• phone: 0800 707 4103

No closing date has been published. When an application reaches Cheshire East, the council will run its own consultation. Comments made to the council then are the formal representations it weighs when it decides.

We will report the second event when the developer sets a date. For applications inside the borough, see our Warrington planning news page.