Alderney’s most senior politician has clarified the situation around whether a potential data centre is being built in the island.
Jeannie Cameron, Chair of Policy and Finance (P&F), told Express approaches had been made by a private company keen to build the centre, while a Memorandum of Understanding had also been drafted, and a feasibility study commissioned.
She was responding to concerns raised by island politician Alex Snowdon, and some members of the public in Alderney.
Mr Snowdon has refused to apologise for his comments, despite being suspended from the States of Alderney until January, instead doubling down and claiming the row could generate a “constitutional crisis”.
‘The facts of the matter’
“Last year, a company approached the States of Alderney with an idea for the potential development of a data centre on the island,” explained Ms Cameron.
She said this company “presented its initial thinking to the Economic Development Committee and subsequently to States Members, with some initial focus on the Braye Opportunity Area, which it had identified as an area Alderney had previously sought to develop”.
Ms Cameron said at that stage the idea of a data centre being built in Alderney was just that, “simply an idea”, and “Members did not consider the proposition as presented to be viable”.
Pictured: Jeannie Cameron is Chair of the States of Alderney’s Policy and Finance Committee.
Rather than dismissing the concept outright, Ms Cameron said “representatives were invited to visit Alderney, speak with Planning, understand the island’s physical and planning constraints and familiarise themselves with the processes that would apply”.
The company then requested a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) be drafted “to allow more detailed and commercially sensitive discussions to take place confidentially”.
Ms Cameron said the MoU was handled through the civil service and legal counsel.
“The MoU was not a development agreement,” she said.
Importantly, the document did not approve a data centre, select a site or appoint a developer, she added.
“It simply provided a confidential framework for exploratory discussions while the company considered whether it could develop a revised proposition.”
Is it feasible?
At the same time as the MoU was being drafted, Ms Cameron said the States of Alderney decided that a more fundamental question needed answering: was data-centre development actually feasible in Alderney at all?
To try and answer this question, an independent feasibility study was commissioned through Guernsey Procurement – a States of Guernsey department.
Ms Cameron said that study concluded that data-centre development was feasible, and had the potential to be economically transformational for Alderney.
This still didn’t mean the development of a data centre was approved though.
“Instead, Policy & Finance agreed that the appropriate next step was to test the wider market through an Expression of Interest (EOI), again conducted through Guernsey Procurement,” explained Ms Cameron.
“The EOI was openly published and available for any interested party to respond to. It was not a tender and gave no preference to the company which had originally approached Alderney. Its purpose was to establish what, if anything, the wider sector might propose and hopefully provide the States with credible propositions which could actually be considered.”
Ms Cameron said the States haven’t yet received the results of that EOI from Guernsey Procurement, so “we therefore do not presently know how many submissions have been made, by whom, or what they propose”.
What happens next?
The company which originally approached the States of Alderney about building a data centre might not be involved any more.
Ms Cameron said “there has been no further involvement with the company which originally approached Alderney”, however it may have submitted an EOI, she added.
“If it wishes to be considered, it must participate through the same official process as everybody else,” she explained.
“If the EOI identifies a credible proposition, it can then be considered internally to determine whether it warrants further exploration.”
If the EOI exercise demonstrates that building a data centre is viable in Alderney, it will be taken forward through the appropriate channels, said Ms Cameron, who again reiterated that nothing had been decided yet.
“Any proposition taken forward would still be subject to the appropriate public consultation, environmental and heritage assessments, planning requirements and democratic processes before any decision to proceed,” she said.
“Only after those stages, and if there were sufficient justification and support to continue, would a formal tender or procurement process arise.”
