Residents are in uproar over plans to build a £3billion data centre outside their tiny Kent village. Locals in Southfleet received letters through their doors last week revealing that land currently used for fruit growing has been earmarked for the proposed Ebbsfleet AI Data Centre. Sprawling across 145 acres, the data centre would be one of the largest in the UK. It is deemed to be of such national importance that the developers are going straight to the Government for permission instead of seeking approval from the local council.Data centres, which house computers and data storage equipment used to run digital services, are considered critical to the UK's ambitions to roll out artificial intelligence across the economy.A construction boom in America has prompted a growing grassroots revolt from critics who argue the facilities are ugly, noisy and consume vast amounts of electricity and water for cooling.With Britain still lagging far behind the US in the number of data centre developments, the public backlash has so far been comparatively muted.But in Southfleet, a pretty village of fewer than 1,000 people, the anger was palpable when the Daily Mail visited earlier this week.Anthony Tasselli, 75, who lives with his wife Alma next to the earmarked fields, said: 'It's disgusting. Why has it got to be built next to a village like this?