PLANS to relocate a centre in Blaenavon which houses council data to Newport have been approved.

Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council has approved a business case detailing plans to relocate their data, currently housed at the Civic Centre in Ebbw Vale and the data centre in Blaenavon, to Next Generation Data in Newport.

The data centre in Blaenavon has been used by the council for the past ten years but increasing costs and the movement of data to the internet has reduced the need for the building.

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There are concerns over failures to air conditioning units, making the building “high risk”.

The computer room at Ebbw Vale’s Civic Centre is also considered high risk because of the age of the equipment.

In full council, a decision was made to move the data centre to Newport.

The committee heard that the other partners of the SRS data centre had approved the business case already.

These partners are the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner Gwent, Gwent Police, Monmouthshire County Council, Newport City Council and Torfaen County Borough Council.

Cllr Steve Thomas said: “The key point is the state of the equipment. I think it’s a no brainer.”

Annual costs for the four councils at the new data centre would total £550,239 plus a capital cost of £1.4 million split between the councils.

This news comes after Newport City Council approved plans in September for a new data centre on land east of Celtic Technology Centres at Celtic Lakes in Newport. This would be based to the back of the existing Next Generation Data Centre.

The application included four pods, which would be used as offices for storing data. The scheme would also bring 30 jobs to the area.