We sent this letter with Woodhall, Faskine and Palacecraig Conservation Group to ask for transparency around the developments planned as part of the AI Growth Zone.
Lorna Bowden, Chief Planning Officer, Planning and Place, Civic Centre, Windmillhill Street, Motherwell, ML1 1AB
Planningenquiry@northlan.gov.uk
4 May 2026
Dear Ms Bowden,
Re: Transparency over the extent of developments comprising the North Lanarkshire AI Growth Zone
We are writing to you, along with Woodhall, Faskine and Palacecraig Conservation Group, regarding the Lanarkshire AI Growth Zone. We have written a report on the extent of developments we believe to be linked to the AI Growth Zone, but we realise this may not be the full extent of the plans. The report currently excludes elements such as the ‘onsite renewables’ that the UK Government’s press release noted, and which the developer’s website calls ‘private wire’ renewables.
Given the ambitions for the private wire or onsite renewables that Data Vita have: 800MW wind, 400MW+ of solar and 1400MWh of BESS, this is likely to take up a huge area of many hundreds of hectares. The two large Green Belt sites we have identified, which we assume is where the recently announced 500 MW data centre buildings will be, cover 212 hectares in total, so the impact on this area of North Lanarkshire could be enormous.
At present planning and consent applications are coming in one by one, some to the local authority and some to the Energy Consents Unit at Scottish Government. It is impossible for local people or civil society to understand what is happening in, what is, a development of national interest.
We have done our best in the report on our website (aprs.scot/chapelhall-ai-growth-zone) to bring together what we know about proposed developments in the area of Chapelhall and Calderbank that may be connected with the AI Growth Zone. However this is likely to be incomplete.
We are writing to ask that North Lanarkshire Council map the extent of the plans for the AI Growth Zone, and other data centre developments in the area, gathering information from the developers to make it transparent. We would be grateful if North Lanarkshire Council also clarify the extent of the AI Growth Zone and where its boundaries lie and whether the AI Growth Zone title in NLC relates only to the Data Vita developments as referenced in the UK Government’s announcement or if other proposed data centre developments in NLC area are included or might in future be included under the AI Growth Zone umbrella? We note ILI has plans for a hyperscale data centre adjacent to one of the DataVita sites.
We are aware that there will be a huge area of land that DataVita are planning to build renewables to power their data centres. And we are asking that all developments, including power transmission, substations, generation and storage that are part of the AI Growth zone should be included on the same map with links to the various planning applications list of developments. We are also writing to ECU at Scottish Government to ask that they liaise with North Lanarkshire Council about this.
Having all the developments mapped and listed together would help local people and civil society to understand what the AI Growth Zone would mean for their area, and for Scotland, and so that the sum total of the development can be scrutinised for its impact on the environment, our climate targets, water resources, and communities.
We would value a meeting with you to discuss the above request.
Yours sincerely,
Dr Kat Jones, Director, APRS
Dr Ann Glen, Woodhall, Faskine and Palacecraig Conservation Group
