{"id":651248,"date":"2025-12-23T22:32:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T22:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/651248\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T22:32:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T22:32:14","slug":"scottish-ministers-urged-to-intervene-in-edinburgh-ai-data-centre-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/651248\/","title":{"rendered":"Scottish ministers urged to intervene in Edinburgh AI data centre plans"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE Scottish Government has been urged to intervene in plans to build a giant AI data centre outside Edinburgh, after the city\u2019s\u00a0council waved the need for an\u00a0environmental\u00a0impact assessment (EIA).\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is one of two data centres currently being planned for the capital, which environmental groups have claimed would use enough energy to power Edinburgh and Glasgow twice over.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A screening opinion published on Friday (DEC 18) by a senior planner at the local authority ruled that an EIA would not be\u00a0required.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the report admitted that the data centre \u201cwill have effects on the environment through use of natural resources\u201d,\u00a0senior planner Lewis McWilliam wrote that it is not \u201catypical for this type of development\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, the campaign group Action to Protect Rural Scotland\u00a0(APRS)\u00a0has\u00a0urged Scottish ministers<\/a> to intervene following the decision.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The group called the council\u2019s decision to waive an EIA \u201cgobsmacking\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"large<\/a>Two AI data centres have been proposed to the council.<\/p>\n

Kat Jones, director at APRS, told The National<\/a> newspaper: \u201cThis is a gobsmacking decision given what we know about the impacts of hyperscale data centres on energy use and water.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis development will use the same energy as a quarter of a million households.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAn EIA\u00a0is required to\u00a0look in detail at what the environmental impacts will be and the council is asleep at the wheel if they are not requiring a proper examination of these.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Edinburgh data centre at South Gyle is only one of many already in the planning system whose combined energy demand would double Scotland\u2019s energy requirements.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the moment councils across central Scotland are looking at applications for hyperscale data centres without any remit to look at the cumulative impact of these decisions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need the Scottish Government to halt all planning decisions until a proper investigation can be made into the environmental and community impacts of these plans.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The council\u2019s policy committee had previously agreed earlier this month<\/a> that there needed to be further guidance and regulation surrounding the data centres, with the council set to debate a generative AI policy in 2026.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: \u201cIt would not be\u00a0appropriate for\u00a0the Scottish Ministers to comment on a live or future application for proposed development.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is for the planning authority in the first instance to consider any application.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE Scottish Government has been urged to intervene in plans to build a giant AI data centre outside…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":643639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[197376,748,1102,4884,712,11312,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-651248","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-ai-data-centres","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-edinburgh","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-scotland","13":"tag-scottish-government","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115771260751848571","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}