A 60-hectare data centre campus is planned near Little Bollington, by the M56 and A556. The first public drop-in is at High Legh on 30 September, 4pm to 8pm.
A developer has published plans for a campus of data centres on about 60 hectares of land near Little Bollington, in the far north of Cheshire East.
Innova calls the project Spodegreen Data Centre. The land lies south of Lymm Road (the A56), north of the M56 and west of the A556. (Spodegreen Data Centre, Innova)
This is Little Bollington near Dunham Massey and Altrincham, not Bollington near Macclesfield. The site is about five miles north of Knutsford and roughly 14 miles north-west of Macclesfield town centre.
The first public consultation event is on Wednesday 30 September, from 4pm to 8pm, at High Legh Village Hall, West Lane, WA16 6LR.
What is proposed
No planning application has been made yet. Innova’s proposals page describes a site that several data centre operators could share. It lists:
- data halls holding the servers and plant
- offices and security buildings
- a district heating energy centre
- a “Living Lab” teaching space for training and school STEM events
- a solar array on land west of Coe Lane, plus solar panels on roofs and over car parks
- landscaping, new woodland and green buffers around the site
The site would connect to the local electricity grid. It would also have electricity substations and backup power generation on site. Cooling would use what Innova calls a hybrid air and closed-loop water system, designed to keep water use to a minimum.
Innova says it is assessing whether waste heat from the servers could supply a local heat network. It has not named any homes or businesses that would take it.
The main entrance would use the existing access off Lymm Road and Chester Road. A second entrance further west along Lymm Road would be for essential use only.
What Innova says it would bring
Innova says the campus would generate “circa £20 million additional business rates” for Cheshire East Council. That is the developer’s own estimate. It does not say over what period, and it has not published the calculation. Under the national business rates retention system, not all rates collected stay with the council.
For scale, Cheshire East’s budget for this year only balances after spending £24.995m of emergency government support, as we reported this month.
The developer also promises:
- “a significant number” of skilled jobs in construction and operation, without giving a figure
- apprenticeships and training funded with colleges and universities in the region
- a community benefit fund, which it says it is “currently exploring”
The planning position
Innova says it has put the land forward for Cheshire East’s new Local Plan, through the council’s call for sites earlier this year. It will keep promoting the site through that process.
It plans to submit a planning application to Cheshire East in 2026 or 2027. The council would then run its own public consultation. Its timeline lists pre-application talks with council planning officers in summer 2026.
Little Bollington’s own neighbourhood plan, made in 2023, says the parish “lies entirely within the Green Belt”. The postcode Innova gives for the site, WA14 4TP, falls in the parish of Little Bollington with Agden, according to the ONS postcode directory. Innova’s pages do not mention the Green Belt.
The timeline Innova has published
| When | What |
|---|---|
| Summer 2026 | Pre-application talks with council planning officers |
| September to October 2026 | Innova’s own consultation |
| 30 September 2026, 4pm to 8pm | First drop-in, High Legh Village Hall |
| Winter 2026 | Second in-person event, with the results of surveys and environmental assessments |
| 2026 or 2027 | Planning application to Cheshire East Council |
What it means for you
- Go and see the plans. The drop-in is at High Legh Village Hall, West Lane, Knutsford, WA16 6LR, from 4pm to 8pm on 30 September. Parking is on the opposite side of the road.
- Comment without going. Innova takes feedback by email at contact@spodegreendc.com, by phone on 0800 707 4103, or through a map on its Have Your Say page.
- This is not the council’s consultation. Comments sent to Innova are not formal objections or support. That comes later, if an application is lodged with Cheshire East.
- Watch the Local Plan. Whether the land is put forward for development will also be decided through the new Local Plan, which has its own consultations.
Innova is working with Alpaca Communications on the consultation. We will report the application if and when it reaches the council. For other schemes across the area, see our planning news page.
Have your say