We’ve made a document on ‘tips for campaigners‘ but thought it would be much better to hear it from the local campaigns themselves. Here we hear from the campaigns in Auchtertool, Larbert, Hurlford and West Edinburgh/Hermiston.
Andrea Cail, Auchtertool Community Council Chair
As a village we had been living with the knowledge that a planning application was in preparation for a 600 MW hyper scale data centre on the edge of our village on a green belt site since April 2025.
I think it is fair to say the community was worried, anxious and unsure about just what this would mean. Few of us had any real knowledge about data centres, and certainly very few really understood what a hyper scale development meant. The developer had provided little information, as it was to be a ‘planning in principle’ application. They had ‘kept the information simple’ to aid understanding and had repeatedly failed to answer our questions. We have since learned the developer took this as implied consent. They asked the 44 village residents who attended their 2 day consultations what we wanted. More information was the reply.
In April 2026, we learned that Fife Council had carried out an environmental impact screening and decreed that that EIA was not required. I think it is fair to say the community was angry and confused. A site with six data halls standing 35m high and all the related infrastructure on agricultural land which is also a flood plain?
At the end of April, I attended the APRS AGM and a workshop focusing on data centres. This was the crucial turning point in the start of our campaign, as I was able to report back that we were not alone. Communities across Scotland were all facing similar planning proposals. Armed with advice and essential information we began to get ourselves organised. Around the same time we learned that the planning in principle application had gone in. The scale of the development was far larger than we had been led to, or maybe wanted to believe.
- A crucial conversation then took place with ERCS brokered by APRS – and a solicitors letter went to Fife Council challenging their decision not to conduct a full EIA and requesting more information.
- A public meeting was organised – if this was going to be a serious legal challenge we would need to raise some funds and as a community council we needed to involve the village in this decision.
- The word got out on social media – in the space of five days, word spread and over 250 people attended the meeting including two MSPs; our elected councillors and the local press. We also met our MP in the same week. Feelings were running high but the debate, questions and discussion were informed. Serious questions were asked about energy, water use, noise pollution, local wildlife, the visual impact.
- We quickly realised we needed support from all corners of Fife, this development would impact on communities around us, and they wanted to get involved and support. We have accepted any support offered and a lot of information and advice has been shared.
- A dedicated Facebook site has been set up to share information and help people write objections. Currently it has over 2,000 members.
- Letters have been written to our elected MSPs
- FOIs have been written
- Banners have been printed, doors have been knocked on, meetings held for those who are not online
- A request has gone into Historic Environment Scotland to look at castle ruins on the site, which will be ‘dug up sensitively’ dating back to the 15th century, they have acknowledged and put it into their system for review.
- The deadline for comments has been extended after a member of the public noticed documents were missing from one of the impact assessments
- Finally a dedicated Auchtertool Action Group has been set up as this is more than our Community Council can manage to take this all forward and who knows what will happen next!
Michael Maciocia, Larbert Campaign
The Larbert Campaign got going in earnest after the planning application was lodged by the developer with less than three weeks to get as many local responses as possible.
Larbert does not have a community council, instead the local ‘Kinnaird Villages, The Inches Residents Association’ is a body that Falkirk Council recognise as a voice of the community. And it was this organisation that fronted our initial efforts.
The main thing that we identified and concentrated on doing, was getting the message on what was planned out to as many people as possible. This included local politicians, and their research assistants. We had a thousand leaflets printed and distributed, and we made the template available for others to print at home, with a simple request, please distribute to six of your neighbours. It had simple messages inviting people to look at the dedicated Larbert page on the APRS webpage (as we didn’t have the time to set up our own with less than three weeks until the deadline for Objections to the planning application. We also set up an Facebook page, with a request to look, see if you were for or against the development, and linking directly to the Falkirk Council web page so people could Object.
To back this up, we also organised two public meetings under the banner of the residents association. The first meeting was about 10 days after the planning application was lodged, and we had about 85 people, including research assistants from both the local MP and MSPs. This meeting generated about 1,000 responses to the application at Falkirk Council.
We had two significant interviews with The National journalists, and there was a significant article which looked at the pollution that would be related to routine testing of the diesel back-up generators, including the impacts due to the proximity to a Care Home, Hospital and thousands of people.
This also saw many more people in the community ask to help in the campaign.
We held a second, larger meeting, of about 400 people with invites going to all local politicians, councillors, MPs and MSPs, with a presentation on the development’s impacts. This generated a huge community response that saw over 5,000 objections arrive against the development in the space of 10 days. It also persuaded our local MP to call out the development as inappropriate and calling on the council and Scottish Government to reject.
We also held a protest at the site of the development which attracted media and also a local resident Susan Boyle, which has driven more awareness in a much wider audience of our situation.
One of the issues that our group has been dealing with is making sure we are entirely non-politcal. We recognise that hyperscale AI data centres are something that appeals to people across the political spectrum and so we are taking care that we are entirely political neutral. We are encouraging our politicians to represent us in Parliament to our decision makers rather than campaign locally, as we feel it is our role to raise awareness locally.
Lisa Beacham – Hurlford campaign
The Hurlford Campaign was the first local group to start – back in Autumn 2025 and has been an inspiration to others, as well as offering their assistance to groups starting up, especially those concerned with ILI developments
East Ayrshire is one of Scotland’s poorest local authorities – low income communities like ours are exploited for this infrastructure and we needed to work out how we could mobilise against the hyperscale Ai data centre.
We opened a facebook group and shared it and got loads of interest and members. We had a business leader in the community who let us use the pub for a community event in January as we had no funds to hold an event.
The Hurlford campaign is a really inter-generational and diverse group. We are not a very well-off area and the group has people who are on really low incomes, but also all the way through middle to high income, and everyone is mobilised to the cause.
I would suggest it is really really important to get mobilised early. So you can start getting organised and get your heads round what the implications of the hyperscale data centre is for your community, as there is just so much to learn.
It was really good that we caught on so early and could get a unified voice at the community meetings which were held by the developer.
It is so important to find out about what you are up against – find out about the company developing the site, and about hyperscale AI data centres globally. We held the developers and the decision makers to account – including when the developers didn’t show up to the consultation meetings. Refused to let the smallest things get past us. Made them realise they couldn’t mess us around. We did Freedom of Information Requests to find out about what was going on. This was about trying to find out what was going on but also to show that we expect there to be transparency in our decision makers. We feel this has persuaded the local authority and others of the importance of doing things properly.
We struggled to get the money to do things – we had many challenges, including that all the villages are quite dispersed, but it’s amazing how they all came together.
The Planning System seems like it was designed to make it hard for people to understand and get involved in it. We felt that, in a community like Hurlford, this was especially unfair and so we got the council to commit to write the documents in an easier to understand form. They have agreed that, if further documents go onto the planning portal, they will provide a lay-man’s summary for people who are not familiar with the planning system to allow for more transparency.
It is so frustrating that the planning system is skewed against communities. Councillors keep using the excuse of ‘we can’t talk about a specific application’ when you are just looking for an explanation of what is going on. Don’t let them get away with that. Partly this is due to the councillors not wanting to express a view as then they will not be allowed to vote on any planning decisions due to perceived ‘conflicts of interest’.
However in our campaign, one of the councillors, who is a Town planner himself, Barry Douglas, announced that he wouldn’t vote on any decisions on the development so that he could use his experience to help us interact with the planning system.
Our councillors have said that this is the very first time they have had multiple community members getting in touch with concerns over a development. They aren’t used to the amount of political engagement from a low income area.And this is really part of what made the difference. Community members were sending emails all the time to councilors and others with very well-evidenced arguements. Whenever the councillors were posting stuff on facebook – to promote their activities in the community, like ‘photo ops’, we went into comments and asked them ‘what about the data centre?’
It is completely vital to need to have your facts right and stay on point – check everything so when your councillors look it up they find you are right. Use the points that will win you the fight and stay on topic. no matter how much you want to go on a tangent stay on the subjects that will win the campaign.
Sarah Matthews, Hermiston/ West Edinburgh Campaign
When we first became aware of the proposed hyperscale data centre, we realised that understanding the project had to come before opposing it. We spent time learning as much as we could about the development itself, the companies behind it, and the planning and government policies that would shape the decision-making process.
We wrote to the relevant authorities asking for information, and where appropriate we submitted Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to access documents that were not readily available. Building a solid understanding of the facts gave us confidence when speaking to our community, elected representatives and the media.
Our next priority was making sure local people knew what was being proposed. We contacted neighbours, friends and anyone we thought might have an interest, then canvassed households close to the site to speak to residents who may not yet have been aware of the plans or the potential impacts. We produced simple laminated posters that volunteers could display in windows, noticeboards and other prominent locations to help spread awareness across the wider area. We also created a WhatsApp group that members could easily share with trusted neighbours. It remains an informal group where everyone contributes what they can, whether that’s delivering leaflets, researching information, writing emails or simply helping to spread the word. The group has now met in person twice, helping to build relationships and maintain momentum.
To demonstrate the level of public concern, we launched a petition on Change.org and established a Facebook page to keep people informed and provide a central place for updates. We also reached out to our local Community Councils, asking for both their guidance and support. As our area is covered by four Community Councils, engaging with each of them has been an important part of ensuring the concerns of local residents are represented as widely as possible.
Alongside community engagement, we worked hard to ensure decision-makers were aware of local concerns. We wrote persistently to our MPs and MSPs asking for their support, and where appropriate we also raised the issues publicly through social media. Every Edinburgh planning councillor received correspondence outlining our concerns, and we took the opportunity to present a deputation to Edinburgh Council’s Planning Committee. Looking ahead, we are planning a public information evening to help residents better understand the proposal and its implications, alongside producing campaign banners to increase awareness and visibility within the community.