A petition with almost 55,000 signatures was handed into Google’s flagship London office today, calling on it to withdraw controversial data centre plans for an Essex Local Wildlife Site, but they refused to accept it.

Google’s proposed Thurrock Data Centre campus would destroy much of the 52-hectare Arena Essex Local Wildlife Site, which is home to hundreds of species of invertebrate, including the Brown-banded Carder Bee (Bombus humilis) and Dingy Skipper butterfly (Erynnis tages), Red Listed Nightingales (Luscinia megarhynchos) and Endangered Broad-leaved Cudweed (Filago pyramidata).

Nestled in a former quarry and wedged between the Mardyke Valley and Lakeside Retail Park, this unique wildlife haven has thrived almost unnoticed, alongside speedway at the Arena Essex Raceway until the track closed in 2018. Studies have revealed that the proposals would emit more carbon than an international airport, alongside increasing water demand in an area of exceptional drought stress, while offering few benefits for the local community.