News

Lockerbie data storage and processing facility

R & D Construction Group Limited proposes to develop a multi purpose Data Storage, Commercial, Horticultural and Housing extension to the town of Lockerbie in Dumfries & Galloway.

The development will enshrine principles of Sustainability and address Economic, Social and Environmental aspects of the locality, the region, and Scotland as a whole. The principal element of the development is a data storage and processing facility of up to three million square feet (two hundred and seventy thousand square metres), which will address a world-wide shortage of data storage capacity, and offset the vast energy input required by balancing this with local renewable energy sources and the re-use of energy in an associated development bordering Lockerbie. The project will provide new homes of mixed tenure in response to recorded local housing need, commercial, business and residential work space suitable for companies and individuals working in the Web-Commerce and I.T. industries, and up to 50 acres of horticultural and domestic allotment land will be included in the masterplan. The sustainable credentials of the development are based on a grouping of interdependent and interacting circumstances that this locality can provide and which will benefit the existing community and commerce.

Ardnablane Estates, the special project division of R&D Construction Group Limited, acquired Peelhouses Farm just to the north of Lockerbie in April 2008 with part-funding through The Royal Bank of Scotland. Planning consultants Farningham McCreadie White Green Young have been appointed to prepare a masterplan and outline planning application for the 300 acre site, and discussions have taken place since May 2008 with The Carbon Trust, The Energy Saving Trust and the Building Research Establishment to assist and advise in this process. An Environmental Impact Assessment is nearing completion through Prospect Design Partnership and an Energy Audit for the development is currently being undertaken by Faber Maunsell, consulting engineers. The development has been discussed with Dumfries & Galloway Council's planning and enterprise officials at strategic and area levels and has been received positively. The planning application scoping process is well under way and will result in an application being lodged with the Council at the end of this year.

The town of Lockerbie is situated in southern Scotland and benefits from excellent road and rail links north and south. More importantly in terms of the data storage facility, Lockerbie also 'enjoys' a cool climate and immediate proximity to the spine optical data cable running the length of the UK, and has both power and available land in abundance. In short, where London is lacking, Lockerbie has every possible attribute for efficient, economical, and ecologically sensitive development. Project advisers, Cisco Systems, who are world leaders in the provision of data storage capacity and facilities, have been advising on the technical and global marketing elements of the data storage facility and are greatly impressed by the location and potential of this £500 million project. Importantly to R&D as the main local development company, this is an excellent and exciting opportunity to completely change the international perception of Lockerbie as a town from that of the location of the tragic event of the past to one of a leading international centre in the I.T. and Data Storage industries of the future.

The environmental sustainability of the project draws together a synergy of locally available factors. The data storage facility requires a great deal of electrical power, mostly for cooling. The cool climate reduces the load required, but that which is required may be provided by a new wind farm, currently being put through the planning process by the operator Wind Energy (Newfield) Ltd, and the existing bio-mass generation plant just to the north of the site, with backup from on-site generation linked to the national grid. Unlike most of the existing data centres in existence, the heat produced by the plant will not be lost as exhaust to the atmosphere, but will form the basis of a community heat and power distribution system to the benefit of the new housing, horticultural greenhouses and commercial space on site, as well as potentially the new sports centre and swimming pool and the new school currently under construction in Lockerbie, and possibly also to existing residential properties and businesses in the town.

The housing will answer a local need, (DGHP the local RSL currently has a waiting list of one thousand five hundred households,) provide a living and working environment where plentiful natural countryside and sympathetic master-planning together with integrated very high speed I.T. communications, village amenities and employment opportunities are all immediately to hand, Both housing and commercial properties will be designed in association with The Carbon Trust, The Energy Saving Trust, and the Building Research Establishment to provide buildings designed, detailed and constructed to Code for Sustainable Homes Level 4, ensuring very high thermal performance levels. Working from home, or working within walking distance of home will be designed into the masterplan, as will being able to shop and enjoy social activities. Existing commerce in Lockerbie will also benefit from this major regeneration project. Employment opportunities directly associated with the development are currently estimated at one thousand construction jobs over the ten-year development period and another one thousand jobs on site in the longer term in the I.T., service, commercial and horticultural workspaces being developed.

Further information available from:-

Website www.lockerbiedatacentres.co.uk

David King, Director of Architecture / Project Coordinator, R&D Construction Group Limited.

John M. Hume, Chairman and Chief Executive, R&D Construction Group Limited.