A new 65ft-high data centre is a humming 'monstrosity' that has ruined countryside views and scared away local wildlife, residents have said.

Families living on an affluent street in Wales have watched as the Vantage centre sprang up just yards from their homes, replacing their idyllic views with a silver metal warehouse.

Houses in the village of Coedkernew, Newport – some worth more than £1million – shook as contractors erected buildings housing vast computers, creating so much dust that the firm had to repeatedly clean residents' windows.

Data centres house powerful computers used in everything from AI to online banking. They are becoming increasingly common in Britain and are classified by the UK Government as critical national infrastructure.

According to recent research by the Senedd, 'most jobs in the UK' are now reliant upon them in some way.

But homeowners in Coedkernew have complained the landscape has been spoilt and animals including birds and bats – once a common sight – have all but disappeared.

They say they have already started hearing humming from the site before it is fully operational, and are concerned about even more noise and an increase in traffic.

Residents even claim the giant data centres would be an obvious target for an air strike in the event of war.

It comes after three Amazon Web Services data centres – two in the United Arab Emirates and one in Bahrain – were hit by drones earlier this year amid the war in the Middle East.

Those living in the area say their objections have been ignored by Newport planners who want to turn the port into a 'science city'.

One resident on the 'front line' – those whose gardens run alongside a steel fence around the perimeter of the 46-acre site owned and operated by Vantage Data Centers – said the scenes are 'apocalyptic'.

Retired chemical company operator Dale Johnston, 59, said: 'They call us the front line because we live closest to the data centre.

'It's all I can see from my kitchen window, it fills the entire view.

'It was once just fields but the birds and the bats have disappeared. I used to live in the countryside, now some of the surroundings here are apocalyptic.'

Father-of-two Mr Johnston is one of four homeowners who get their windows cleaned by Vantage because of all the dust created during the construction work.

His view was meant to be shielded by a bund – a man-made embankment supporting shrubs and trees – but it wasn't built high enough.

Mr Johnston and his neighbours blame Newport City Council for the data centre nightmare that has ruined their lives and seen the value of their properties nosedive.

Andrea Rogerson-Hewett, 60, a senior administrator and mother-of-four, who lives next door, said: 'They have pushed it through under the radar, we had no idea they were building something like this at the end of our gardens.

'The scale of it is ridiculous. I blame the council 100 per cent. They want to be the leaders in AI in Wales, you can see the pound signs in their eyes, they don't care about the residents.

'I'm miserable all the time with this data centre being so close. There should have been compulsory purchase on our properties.

'Would I get a buyer who would pay what the house was worth a few years ago? I don't think so.'

The back gardens of most of the properties are overlooked by the centre, made up of four giant pods, and no homeowner has been offered financial compensation.

Residents say they can already hear a humming noise coming from the buildings but dread the day when there is a power outage and banks of noisy petrol driven generators kick in.

Childminder Amanda Young, 58, said: 'That's our biggest concern, the unknown. We don't know what we are facing because these data centres are so new.

'They are going to be springing up all over the country, more consideration needs to be given than what we have experienced here.'

Retired banker Cliff Jones, 65, who has been at the forefront of the campaign against the centres, said: 'We have been accused of nimbyism but there has been so little consultation anyone would object.

'We have had to put up with so much noise during the construction phase, we couldn't go into our back gardens.

'But this monstrosity is up now, we have to live with it the best we can.'

Residents say the promise that the centres will bring much-needed jobs to Newport is 'unrealistic'. While up to 600 people were employed in the construction work, each centre is expected to employ less than 20 people.

There are currently 568 data centres listed in the UK, with this set to increase. A further nine have been proposed in Wales alone.

In the past year alone, the amount of electricity requested for data centres rose from 41GW to 125GW.

They are also estimated to use around 6.6million litres of water each day – equivalent to that of 20,000 homes. Water is one of the biggest resources used by the centres as it is vital for cooling.

A spokesman for Vantage Data Center said they were 'committed to being a good neighbour', adding they 'work closely with local authorities' to 'manage construction activity, including traffic, noise and lighting' as well as incorporating 'measures designed to protect the local environment'.

Newport City Council said when considering planning applications it worked to 'ensure that the impacts are considered acceptable in terms of biodiversity, light, noise and construction traffic'.