Allegations of ‘fascism’ made at fractious Council meeting

Cllr Christopher Jackson alluded to the ideology of facism during a fractious Derry City and Strabane District Council discussion on data centres.

Referring to a presentation on the issue made to Council’s Environment and Regeneration committee earlier this month, Cllr Jackson said he “commended” the representatives from the Environmental Gathering group and the Save the Moat campaign who had spoken but they “do not have a mandate to tell us what we have to do”. 

At the beginning of Wednesday’s full Council meeting, Cllr Jackson, who declared an interest in the issue as a Commissioner of Foyle Port, which owns land on which an approved data centre is to be built, said he was in a “privileged position to have a bit more understanding of the process”.

He added: “I know some of the figures that were presented by the activists that came to committee were wrong but they accepted themselves that the information that they obtained was via the media. There were a lot of inaccuracies that raised concerns.

“I know they suggested [certain] proposals at the committee and there were no members of the committee that supported them enough to make the proposal. It doesn’t mean they don’t sympathise with the campaigns but, the fact remains, we do have a professional planning department. 

“I think it is unfair for people to say it is their job to stand up for the environment. It is their job to scrutinise planning applications and assess them against any potential environmental damage. 

Climate concerns over approved Foyle Port data centres raised

Presentations were given by Méabh O’Neill from the Environmental Gathering group and John Gormley from the Save the Moat campaign

“That is the role of our professional planning officers and they do it quite diligently and in the case of the [data centre] application that was approved, they did assess that and they did assess the environmental impacts and they reassured and assured the committee in that regard and the [planning] committee took its decision,” said Cllr Jackson who added he had “every confidence in Council’s planning team. 

He added that decisions and recommendations were coming from informed positions.

“They are not coming from speculation. They are not coming from information that may have been obtained from a newspaper article. They are obtained from facts and they are obtained from professionals,” said Cllr Jackson, who added Sinn Féin would not be supporting the data centre proposal brought to Council by Cllr Shaun Harkin (People Before Profit). 

The data centre proposal was that “Derry City and Strabane District Council writes to the Department for Infrastructure to ask it to exercise its oversight role and provide clear policy direction to local authorities on data centre planning decisions in line with commitments in the Climate Act (2022).

“Council will gain clarity on the annual, and daily energy usage by the approved data centre and present this to this committee with comparisons on household energy usage in our Council area and across the North, and the impact on energy security.

“Council will bring a report to the Environment and Regeneration committee to outline its obligations under the Climate Act (2022) for data centres and other big emitters of greenhouse gases.

“Council will review if our local development plan considers energy consumption and energy security as material considerations in planning decisions.

Cllr Harkin’s motion was seconded by Cllr Gary Donnelly (Independent) who said the people who had originally made the data centre presentation to the Environment and Regeneration committee had compared the North to the 26 Counties.

He added: “[There] these data centres use a significant section of the electricity grid. There is a lot of information unfolding but there was nothing coming back from [any councillors or officers] to allay the concerns or fears, yet today we are being told to trust the planning committee and everything’s okay. Instead of considering these proposals today, it seems to be ‘have faith in the planning system’. I am no clearer following the previous speakers,” said Cllr Donnelly.

When Cllr Harkin highlighted the fact that the people who made the original [data centre] presentation to the Environment and Regeneration committee were not present on Wednesday “to defend themselves”, things got heated.

Cllr Christopher Jackson responded that they are not under attack in any way. 

He added: “Because you disagree with a position, doesn’t mean you’re attacking somebody. 

“If you outline a position and demand everybody to agree on your position, I think that’s called fascism. 

“I don’t believe there are too many people in this chamber who think that is the way forward. The proper process in relation to this [data centres] is the planning process and I encourage people to get involved in that and raise their concerns and allow that discussion and allow questions to be answered by people who are in a position to answer them.

“The people who presented, I wish them well. I hope they continue in their activism and I hope they continue to make presentations to this Council but they don’t have a mandate and I want to be clear, they do not have a mandate to tell us what to do and what we have to do. Sinn Féin is not supportive of the proposal.”