Campaigners joined us for a day of networking, talks and workshops at our 2026 AGM and Networking for Campaigners event on Saturday 25th April.
The day’s activities took take place at Beechbrae, a beautiful venue in the woods not far from Blackridge train station between Edinburgh and Glasgow. Find directions here.
This year we combined our AGM with talks and networking on data centres in Scotland. APRS is working on data centres because they are a new and serious threat to Scotland’s countryside and our climate targets. Data centres take up huge amounts of land and many are being proposed in green belts and rural farmland. But they also have massive energy demands which would mean much much more energy infrastructure in Scotland’s landscapes.
We brought together seasoned APRS members with new campaigners on data centres for this event!
Plan for the day
| 1000-1030 | Arrival, tea and coffee | |
| 1030 – 1130 | APRS 2026 AGM | |
| 1130-1230 | Welcome and introductions local campaigns/campaigners present introduce themselves up to 5 mins each. Short introduction to the afternoon | |
| 1230-1330 | LUNCH | |
| 1330-1400 | Woodhall Faskine and Palacecraig Conservation Group have had a ten year fight to protect their green belt by Calderbank, near Airdrie. They recently had a big success with the dismissal of the appeal for the latest iteration of the huge development. They will share a bit about how the campaign won. What works And their tips for campaigning. | |
| 1400-1415 | About the data centre campaign An outline of our strategy so far. How is it going and what do we want to achieve? (Kat Jones) | |
| Help Yourself to Tea and biscuits | ||
| 1430-1530 | Choose either: Local data centre campaigns- networking and strategy. How can we work together and build from the grass roots? How can APRS support campaigners? How do we make the most of skills and opportunities? This is also for APRS members who are keen to be involved and support campaigners and want to find out how. (led by Victoria Plutshack – campaigner in Edinburgh) APRS stories and a walk. We are starting a year of celebrating APRS’s centenary. After a chat over tea and biscuits we will take a walk in the area and Kat will share some of the information she has found and we hope others will share memories of the time they have been involved with APRS. (Kat) | |
| 1530-1600 | Panel discussion with Planners John Esslemont and Paul Ede and also with Nikki Sinclair of APRS, to answer your questions on any planning issue(!) | |
| 1600 | Thanks and End | |
How to get there:
Beechbrae is in Blackridge, West Lothian. There is lots of parking at the venue and the village has a train station – it is a 25 minute walk with some uphill from the train station.
Address:
Beechbrae Wood, Heights Rd, Blackridge, Bathgate EH48 3AW
