A freedom of information request reveals a second site for the AI Growth Zone is planned in South Lanarkshire and that it would impact on a Special Protection Area for birds of prey and Golden Plover.
This was covered in The Herald (5 July 2026) ‘Extremely Concerning’ Anger over revelation controversial Scottish data centre could be extended.
Note about the coverage
It is important to note that the 3400 jobs claim in the article has been fully debunked by an APRS Freedom of Information request to UK Government. The figures that would be employed in the data centre, according to UK Government, are actually less than 10% of this figure, and even that figure was estimated from numbers given by a data centre developer in the North of England. Read the Full article here:
This is a Freedom of Information Request that local community group Woodhall, Fakine and Palacecraig Conservation Group asked for from Nature Scot. You can see the full FoI below. They asked for correspondence, details of any meetings and meeting notes/agendas, related to any discussions that Nature Scot has had with developers DataVita or HFD about biodiversity, biodiversity enhancement, Green Belts or community benefit within the AI Growth Zone in Lanarkshire.’
FoI Nature Scot on communications with HFD/Data Vita
This FoI asks for communications between Nature Scot and HFD/Data Vita around the time the AI Growth zone was announced. It was sent around 8th April and the response was sent 28th April so the contents covers the communications up to a point between those two dates.
The results of the FoI reveal the following:
Firstly: Further developments are planned in South Lanarkshire
It is clear from these emails that HFD is considering a ‘future phase’ in South Lanarkshire on a “similar basis [to North Lanarkshire] with 3 physical components being DC’s, AI Innovation Parks and Energy Parks.” From what we know about the North Lanarkshire site this is likely to cover a significant amount of land for the data centre developments.
The North Lanarkshire site has 212 hectares of green field and green belt for the data centres – and the energy parks are likely to be extremely extensive -they want to build 800MW of wind power for the North Lanarkshire site (Whitelee the largest onshore windfarm is 513MW and covers 55 km2) and 400MW of solar (the largest planned solar in the UK planned at Tillbridge, Lincolnshire is 700MW and will cover 9km2.)
Secondly: The plans they have for South Lanarkshire would impact on an Special protection Area (SPA)
HFD, at the meeting with the Nature Scot Chair and Colin MacPhail, spoke about impacts on SPAs and Nature Scot “noted that Special Protection Area (“SPA”) locations are highly protected and any development would ideally be taken forward by consensus with a range of environmental bodies along with evidence of large-scale benefit.”
SPAs are among our most protected wildlife sites where internationally important populations of birds live.
Since this is in the section titled ‘South Lanarkshire’ we assume that this is the Muirkirk and North Lowther Uplands SPA which is designated for Hen harriers (breeding and non-breeding), breeding Golden Plover and breeding Merlin. This is the only SPA in South Lanarkshire and has been threatened by various wind farm developments over the preceding years, which have been turned down because of the impacts that they would have on the protected species of the SPA.
Because of the location of the SPA on high ground in the Southern Uplands, being among the last significant areas of land that remain undeveloped for wind energy, we assume that HFD are interested in developing their ‘energy parks’ in the area and they would potentially impact on the SPA.
Thirdly: A Board member of Nature Scot was acting to facilitate HFD meetings with senior members of NatureScot staff
A member of the NatureScot Board, Colin MacPhail, an Agricultural Consultant, approached the chair and Chief Exec of Nature Scot in advance of the announcement of the AI Growth zone on behalf of HFD, the AI Growth Zone developers. He wrote that he had met the HFD/DataVita data centre developers and ‘they would be very keen to catch up with you both [Chair and Chief exec] as soon as is feasible.’
The first meeting, which involved Colin MacPhail, the Nature Scot Chair Colin Galbraith and two representatives from HFD, took place on 2 March 2026. After this Colin MacPhail emailed Robbie Kernahan (Nature Scot’s Director of Green Economy) copying in three HFD staff writing:
“At this stage HFD would like to meet with the local NatureScot consenting team to discuss the outline proposal and take advice prior to submitting for planning. Would you be able to advise who the best person is at NatureScot to lead this and see if there is an opportunity for them to meet with HFD in the next couple of weeks.”
Our Comment on this:
“This Freedom of Information request makes it clear that Data Vita’s plans extend beyond Chapelhall and into South Lanarkshire.
“The local community should not be hearing about these plans from a Freedom of Information Request. We wrote to the Scottish Government and the Local Authority to ask for transparency around the AI Growth zone as there has been scant information about what is happening around Chapelhall, and what even the AI Growth zone is or how far it extends. To find out that these conversations are being had with our public bodies when local people have no idea what is happening is a real kick in the shins.
“The discussions that have been had about impacts on a Special Protection Area are particularly alarming. SPAs are our most important wildlife sites – sites of international importance. The one referred to in this exchange of emails is in South Lanarkshire and so will be the Muirkirk and North Lowther SPA, protected because of its importance for rare birds of prey, and waders. It is shocking that a developer is talking about impacts on this protected area – presumably because they would be planning wind turbines in the area to power their South Lanarkshire campus.’
“It is extremely concerning that a Board Member of NatureScot, the agency which is supposed to be protecting our nature and landscapes, is acting as a go-between, to get priority meetings between a hyperscale AI data centre developer and senior members of NatureScot staff. This is not what we expect of the Board members of our public bodies.”