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Search the Public Notice PortalA North Lanarkshire community group has expressed anger over their discovery that the Scottish Government’s nature agency was setting up meetings with a developer over a giant AI ‘growth zone’, while its announcement was still ‘highly confidential’.
The group obtained emails via freedom of information which show that meetings were being arranged between senior NatureScot figures, a board member and HFD, the developer of the site, before the UK Government announced the North Lanarkshire AI Growth Zone on January 29.
They also voiced concern at mention of a “future phase” in South Lanarkshire.
Diane Davidson from the Woodhall, Faskine and Palacecraig Conservation Group made the freedom of information request. She said: “While communities were kept in the dark, developers were already discussing partnerships and future plans with public bodies. These documents raise questions about transparency and how the Government’s thinking was being shaped before the public had any voice.”
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“And while this is being sold as a green, carbon neutral future, our community see it for what it is, green vandalism on an industrial scale.”
Kat Jones, director of Action to Protect Rural Scotland (APRS), said: “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 freedom of information request makes it clear that Data Vita's plans extend beyond Chapelhall and into South Lanarkshire.”
The planned £8.2bn technology and renewable energy campus, located at Chapelhall, is spearheaded by HFD Group, DataVita and CoreWeave.
HFD/DataVita has said it aims to establish one of the world’s most advanced AI sites, combining 500MW of data centre capacity, more than 1GW of private-wire renewable energy infrastructure and an AI innovation park. The development, it has said, will deliver 3,400 jobs and return £543m to local communities.
The FOI revealed communications in which a member of the NatureScot board, Colin MacPhail, an agricultural consultant, approached the chair and chief executive of NatureScot in advance of the announcement of the AI Growth Zone, on behalf of HFD, the AI Growth Zone developers.
The board member 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”.
In the January 20 email, he observed: “Highly confidential, but they are expecting the Government to make a significant announcement on January 29 and they are expecting the North Lanarkshire site to be designated as Scotland’s first and only AI Growth Zone.”
On January 19, DataVita put in pre-application notifications for two large sites of predominantly green belt land, totalling 212 hectares, just 10 days before the announcement of the AI Growth Zone by the UK Government.
Minutes of the meeting, which was then held on March 2, also revealed that HFD/DataVita is not only planning the North Lanarkshire site, but also a possible “future phase” in South Lanarkshire on a “similar basis with three physical components being DCs, AI innovation parks and energy parks".
Ms Jones said: “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.”
However, a spokesperson for HFD said that "early engagement with NatureScot is something any responsible developer should be doing".
"NatureScot is the statutory adviser on nature for a project of this scale, and communities would rightly criticise us if we did not engage with it early. The FOI shows at the first meeting NatureScot made clear that planning applications would be handled locally through the normal process, entirely separate from any wider discussions.
“We hold legal options over land in South Lanarkshire, as infrastructure developers routinely do across many locations, and a future phase there remains no more than an option – that is exactly how the FOI documents describe it.
"There is no active work on any South Lanarkshire site, no application planned and no timetable. That is also why there has been no announcement or community engagement: there is nothing yet to consult anyone on. If a proposal were ever brought forward, the first step would be formal public notification and full statutory consultation, exactly as we have done in North Lanarkshire."
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For the campaigners, the impact on nature and biodiversity is one of their biggest concerns. Ann Glen, a trustee of the Woodhall, Faskine and Palacecraig Conservation Group, said: “We really are very concerned about this, that these large structures will obliterate substantial parts of the greenbelt and the nature that goes along with them. Following a ten-year battle, which went to appeal, they won.
Glen, a geographer and local history expert, said: “What our group has recently succeeded in thwarting was a very large collection of residential and other developments on the green belt and I’m thankful to say that North Lanarkshire Council and also the Scottish Government were in favour of rejecting the whole speculative development.
“The Europark application on Woodhall and Faskine and Palacecraig greenbelt occupied us for a long number of years, campaigning and enlightening people and pointing out to them the value of what we have, and the risk of losing it and eventually it came out on the positive side that we were able to stand good by our greenbelt and its character, so we don’t want to see this now being jeopardised by these data centre proposals."
But HFD highlights its intentions to work with environmental bodies: “What these documents actually record," the spokesperson said, "is a conversation about nature: peat restoration, wetlands, tree planting, a biodiversity corridor along the M8, and the potential for a new National Nature Reserve in Lanarkshire, supported by a community investment fund worth up to £543m over 15 years. We want the environmental bodies at the table early because not only is it the right thing to do, we intend the development to meet the highest standards.
“On transparency: we began the statutory public process before the Growth Zone was announced, lodging pre-application notices on 19 January. That process exists precisely so that communities are formally notified and have a statutory right to be consulted, and it applies to every element of this project."
In the case of the AI Growth Zone, the campaigners are not only concerned about the data centres themselves, but also the energy parks planned to power the data centres.
DataVita’s website says: “The project will generate its own electricity through private wire connections to dedicated renewable energy parks. This includes 800MW of wind generation and 400MW+ of solar capacity, supported by 2,400MWh of battery storage. The system is designed to be "grid positive", meaning it will export surplus clean energy to the national grid rather than drawing from it”.
This too will require land. Already, for the North Lanarkshire AI Growth Zone, DataVita’s pre application red line areas total just over 200 hectares, and APRS has estimated that the energy parks to feed the zone with over 1GW of private wire renewables and battery storage will extend the footprint by many hundreds of hectares.
Ms Jones said: “DataVita/HFD are planning ‘energy parks’, which will consist of large numbers of wind turbines. Their website for the Chapelhall development says they will create 800MW of wind power, which is one and a half times the size of Whitelee.”
Diane Davidson recalled that she first became aware of the AI Growth Zone when some people started messaging the Facebook page. Initially, she assumed the plan just involved an extension to a data centre already at Chapelhall. “Then,” she said, “I realised there was another one that was going to be so much bigger than the one that’s there.”
She began researching data centres and became aware, she said, “about the energy consumption”. "The data centre they are proposing to build will need twice the amount of energy that the whole of Airdrie will need.”
Meanwhile, the campaigners also questioned how many jobs the zone would bring to this former industrial area, once the producer of more than half of Scotland’s coal and home to Ravenscraig steelworks.
“It’s building a big shed,” Ms Davidson said. “It’s not a lot of jobs. It will just be a few security guards and cleaners like you get in the data centres right now.”
The HFD spokesperson said: “The AI Growth Zone is expected to support around 3,400 jobs and £8.2bn of investment in an area that powered Scotland’s last industrial era. Data centres are the critical infrastructure of the next one. The jobs question is not just about who works inside the buildings, it is also the AI, life sciences and advanced manufacturing sectors that grow around them, which is exactly what the AI Innovation Park is for.
"And the energy parks mean the development generates its own renewable power and is designed to be grid positive, exporting surplus clean energy rather than competing with households for it.”
A NatureScot spokesperson said: “NatureScot staff and Board members meet with developers on occasion on a range of issues, including with HFD Renewables to discuss their ambitions for the Lanarkshire AI Growth Zone as a fact-finding and learning exercise. We recommended that they take forward discussions on nature restoration and enhancement with North Lanarkshire Council, as part of their Nature Towns and Cities partnership.
“Such discussions help to ensure that nature protection and restoration is a key consideration in the design and delivery of any development.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “We recognise and understand the concerns about the environmental impact and the impact on energy resources that have been raised as a result of applications for hyperscale data centres.
“Ministers are giving active consideration as to whether the Scottish Government should provide planning guidance to balance the rapid expansion of hyperscale data centres with national energy and climate goals, which are vital to our future prosperity. A careful balance has to be struck between the extent and specificity of national guidance and the discretion that is available for local decision-making.
“It would not be appropriate for the Scottish Government to comment on any specific development proposals in the planning system, however we have been clear that the voices of communities that will be affected by these kinds of development must be central to any considerations.
“Planning authorities have a responsibility to consider the environmental implications of all developments which require planning permission.”
