This development next to homes on the edge of Chapelhall is one of the data centres within the AI Growth zone. There is more information on developments across the Growth zone here. This is due to be 120MW but it is part of a 500MW+ development of data centres as part of the Lanarkshire AI Growth Zone. A Planning Permission in Principle (PPP) application was validated on 3 September 2026 and has a deadline for public objections of 3 October.
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The AI Growth Zone
This development is part of plans for the AI Growth zone at Chapelhall. DV1 and its two extensions and DV3 are being built 500m away and there are plans for an extremely large site the other side of the M8 at South Lanridge Farm. The total capacity of the developments will need to be in excess of 500MW for it to fulfill the requirements to be an AI Growth zone.
We and the local campaign group have written to the local authority, the UK and the Scottish Governments to ask for transparency over the large number of developments planned in the area, including energy parks planned as part of the AI Growth zone.
Find out more on our interactive map
Update 22 September 2026
Following the announcement from the Scottish Government on 16th September that all data centres over 50MW will need an EIA, this data centre will be require to pause planning progress until they have produced an EIA. We received this from the planning authority laying out the position
“In response to your enquiry, I can firstly confirm that the applicant is currently preparing an EIA to accompany planning application 26/01110/PPP.
“As the time period for submitting representations to the original lodged application is now approaching, I can also advise that once the EIA report is submitted, the application will be advertised as an EIA development, with all previous consultees reconsulted and full neighbour notification undertaken. The planning service will also contact the writers of all currently submitted representations on the application file, to ensure that they are aware of the submission of the EIA document, once it has been lodged and is available to view.“
We have further enquired whether the EIA scoping has been carried out and will update when we have it.
Planning permission in Principle Submitted
The application for ‘26/01110/PPP Proposed Green Data Centre development and associated landscaping, access works and other infrastructure. Construction of data centre building(s)… and supporting plant, utilities and infrastructure, including ancillary backup generation.’ was validated and went live on the North Lanarkshire Planning portal on 3 September 2026. Closing date for comments and objections is 3 October (labelled “Expiry Date” on the planning portal).
Application Reference 26/01110/PPP
The capacity of the proposal in noted in the ‘Energy Statement’ as 120MW
Write to your MSP regarding the lack of an EIA for this site
The development has not been required to submit an EIA – we believe there was not enough information given to assess this properly and this needs to be revisited. We have written an email that you can send to your MSPs to ask that they write to the Minister for Public Finance about the lack of an EIA for the site. Jump to Information on how rubbish the EIA screening was
Main Points for Objections
The planning portal is open for objections and comments until 3 October. When submitting objections these need to be ‘material considerations’ which means that they must reference National Planning Framework 4 policies and/or the Local Development Plan. Below is a starting point for Objections, with headings from the pdf below. The advice on objecting has been produced by Kate Wheway with additional content from Kat Jones.
- The developers have not provided enough information for North Lanarkshire Council. For example the impact of the grid connection has not been included in the EIA screening, there is no transport assessment, the is an issue with flooding risk. The council needs to pause the application until sufficient information is provided.
2. The EIA screening was not sufficient – the application should be subject to proper screening (please also email your MSPs about this here)
3. Climate impacts – this is a large data centre and will use a huge amount of energy. In the Energy Report it says that this data centre will use 120MW of electricity, the equivalent of 268,000 homes. It would generate 149,000 tonnes of CO2 a year just from the electricity use not including emissions for the diesel generators – reference
Other Areas
- This is not a ‘green data centre’
- Backup generators will not just be for emergencies – they will be used in e day-to-day demands
- The proposal is extremely large and would affect the Green Belt
- The actual visual impact has not been properly demonstrated
- Cumulative Impact has not been properly assessed
- Night-time generator noise requires proper mitigation
- Layout was not changed after the flood consultant recommended it
- Fuel Storage and safety
- The grid connection has not been included in the EIA screening nor in the application
- The claimed economic benefits should be questioned
Kate Wheway has produced a briefing document for those wishing to Object to the development
How to object to the proposed Chapelhall 120MW data centre
120MW data centre If you are concerned about the proposed DataVita DV4 data centre at Chapelhall, you can make your views known by submitting a formal objection to North Lanarkshire Council. You do not need to be a planning expert, and you do not need to write a long or technical response.
more information here:
Key Information on the Application
Generators
Energy Use (from Energy Statement)
48 generators of 3 MW per generator to support a load of up to approximately 120 MW (full site capacity)
Total installed standby capacity up to approximately 144 MW (to offer redundancy)
They say they will use Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (biodiesel). How realistic it is to get the quantities required is moot.
It says (p4 Energy Statement) it will be ‘grid-fed in normal operation, with standby plant running circa 1% of the hours in a year.’ (which is 87.6 hours a year). This is for times of very high IT load (p11 Energy statement)
Testing Regime (from Air Quality statement):
The DV4 generators will operate for 18-hours each year, in accordance with a regular schedule that will include the following:
- Weekly: Each generator will operate individually for 10-minutes off-load every week.
- Monthly: Each generator will operate individually for 30-minutes every month at approximately 30% load.
- Annually: Each generator will operate individually for 3-hours every year at 100% load.
For long-term assessment, a 0.82% factor (which equates to approximately 72 hours annually) has been applied
to the annual mean modelling results to account for a more realistic annual average run time.
Greenhouse emissions
They say the backup generators operate on Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (HVO) – which is bio-diesel. They say that it is ‘near carbon-neutral’ but bio-diesel is incredibly bad for the environment. They also emit similar amount of NOx emissions as conventional diesel. This sheet spells out the issues
They also say it ‘will be powered entirely by 100% renewable electricity which is drawn from the South Scotland region grid’. But there is no such thing as a South Scotland regional grid. It is a National Grid and the Carbon intensity of energy (2025 figures) is 0.177 kgCO2e/KWh making the impact of a 120MW data centre
EIA Screening
EIA is Not required
The screening report was received 4th June, validated 4th June and the decision confirmed 19th June – this is nine working days, given the world cup bank holiday. The screening report from the developer was not on the planning portal so the local campaign had to request this from the council and it took two weeks for that to arrive. The screening opinion was not published with the decision and, instead it was published on 20 July.
View the documents here:
26/00707/EIASCR | Proposed Data Centre Development and Associated Landscaping, Access Works and Other Infrastructure
“The outline proposals comprise a c.100-124MW green data centre providing data management services for public sector, business and industry customers. The development is considered to form a Class 6 Storage & Distribution land-use (The Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Scotland Order 1997 (as amended)).”
DV4 will operate with a Closed Loop cooling system. This system uses roughly the same amount of water as one average family home with water recycled.
An analysis of the report
This analysis was done by Kate Wheway who has looked at the EIA screening with a critical eye
The developer’s screening report
26_00707_EIASCR-EIA_SCREENING_REPORT___APPENDICES-2024652Download
This document is completely inadequate for assessing what the development will comprise. There is no diagram of the layout and the only diagrams show the layout of a previous development planned for the site which comprised a restaurant and other developments.