The press is reporting today that DataVita have submitted plans for their DV4 hyperscale Data Centre which be be a 100-125MW data centre right next to homes in Chapelhall. This is not yet on planning portals
They have sent press out about the application before this has been validated as being complete by North Lanarkshire Council, and so it is not on the planning portal for the public to view. This makes it very hard to comment on, because we cannot see the detail of the proposals, and the paperwork up to now has been extremely light on content.
Read more about the development and the EIA – we will upload more information when the application reaches the planning portal. This site is part of at least five sites linked to the AI Growth zone and we have tried to document them on the website
We have also examined the EIA screening and have found it to be totally inadequate. We have written to Hannah Mary Goodlad, Minister for Public Finance, to ask that the Scottish Government issue a screening direction for this data centre. This means she would direct the local authority to demand an EIA for this data centre
Kat Jones, Director of APRS said
“The hyperscale data centre applications are coming in thick and fast. One last week in Greenock and one today, right next to homes at the edge of Chapelhall. There is now 1.2GW of data centre power demand in live planning applications. If the Scottish Government wants a strategic approach, as they announced yesterday, they had better get a move on with this moratorium before it is too late.
“The pace of developers putting in planning applications is completely eclipsing the power of the Scottish Government to take any control of the situation, unless they use the planning system to pause on applications.
“And it is not just the Scottish Government. The UK body responsible for planning our energy networks, NESO, are currently doing strategic planning for 1-2GW of data centre energy demand across the whole GB network. But with 1.2GW awaiting planning decisions in Scotland, and another 6GW at earlier stages of the planning process, government policies will be completely overwhelmed by reality unless governments north and south of the border step forward to get a grip on the situation.”
Diane Davidson, secretary of the Woodhall, Faskine and Palacecraig Conservation Group which is campaigning against the development said:
“The AI growth zone seems to be made up of multiple applications for different developments including data centres and energy developments yet the environmental and planning impacts are still being considered application by application. Locals can’t find out what is going on. We have written to the council and the UK and Scottish Governments to ask for transparency and got nowhere.
“Residents are deeply concerned about how much our landscape and community could drastically change, but decisions are progressing rapidly without any clear picture of the bigger plan and how our lives will be impacted. We really feel like we don’t matter.”