Google Waltham Cross data center, England, United Kingdom

Ten months after Google's data center opened at Waltham Cross in Cheshunt, in the Borough of Broxbourne in Hertfordshire, the people living around it got a meeting with the company. In late July 2026, two Google managers, server operations site manager Dan Dale and DCOps site manager Tihomir Lazic, met residents and Broxbourne Borough Council representatives at the council offices, and heard complaints about poor consultation, noise and light pollution. "We haven't had the opportunity to object," one resident said, and another said of the planning process: "If you're working in planning, you would have planned this better." A council representative said only 12 people had come to the previous public meeting about the facility.

Several residents said they could hear a hum from the site, worst in the evening, a problem often blamed on cooling equipment at data centers. One said the lighting was shining right into their bedrooms all night, and Dale said Google was working on changes so that lights would "be on when needed and when access is required." Asked about heat and other effects on the environment, Dale said an environmental impact study had been submitted with the planning application and that "we are constantly monitored to make sure that we are in line with environmental permits." One resident asked whether Google would buy his house so that he could move, saying the site was already affecting house prices.

On water, Lazic described a closed loop, air-cooled system, "a loop of water pipes which run the same amount of water around" rather than losing it to evaporation, and Dale put the site's water use, mostly from its offices, at about 60 cubic meters a month, roughly what five houses use. The 33-acre site is expected to provide up to 77 megawatts of power when full, but is currently nowhere near that level, according to Google.

The opening, on September 16, 2025, had been a different sort of occasion. Chancellor Rachel Reeves opened the site and called Google's two-year, £5 billion UK investment, which it belongs to, "a powerful vote of confidence in the UK economy and the strength of our partnership with the US." Google says more than 250 companies worked on the construction, and it set up a community fund managed by Broxbourne Council. The company says its air-cooled system limits water use to domestic levels and that it is equipped to send waste heat free of charge to local homes, schools or businesses; it projects its UK operations will run at or near 95% carbon-free energy in 2026, with Shell Energy Europe managing that supply.

The planning decisions came years earlier: The Register reported that a data center application for the land was first filed in 2018, before Google bought the land for £33 million in 2020, and that Broxbourne approved the final reserved-matters application on November 30, 2023. Google and the council both say proper procedures were followed, and a Google spokesperson said public consultation took place before the council granted permission. Google's team promised residents further meetings and better communication.