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Geographical

Geographical

Official magazine of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG)

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On The Ground: Cloudtown, the village at the heart of the AI gold rush

26 June 2026
< 1 minute

In Episode 4 of On the Ground, the new podcast from Geographical, Laura Cole investigates the sudden surge of data centres planned for England’s Green Belt land


One day in Iver, a village on the data centre frontier.

Just outside of London, the land around the village of Iver has become ripe territory for the data centre build-out. Of all the sites given the go ahead, one in particular became the subject of national debate.

This is On The Ground, a new podcast from Geographical, written and hosted by Laura Cole. In this series, Laura will be getting out from behind her desk and on the ground, reporting from across the UK’s landscape – and speaking to the people changing it.

Listen to the full story here, or find us on your favourite podcast app.

https://open.spotify.com/show/4uXLSugMjnPKrLRd0fUQkR

Listen to On The Ground on Apple Podcasts

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Published in the UK since 1935, Geographical is the official magazine of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG).

Informative, authoritative and educational, this site’s content covers a wide range of subject areas, including geography, culture, wildlife and exploration, illustrated with superb photography.

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