Scottish Government failing on data centre guidance
The Scottish Government have revealed in a letter to the Scottish Greens that there will be no public consultation on planned new guidance for data centres.
Scottish Greens MSP Patrick Harvie initially wrote a letter to the First Minister in early October, urging the Scottish Government to carry out a full public consultation as part of the development of national guidance on hyperscale AI data centre planning applications.
Patrick received a response to this letter from the Scottish Minister for Finance, Hannah Mary Goodlad MSP, which categorically confirmed that no public consultation would take place.
This comes after The Ferret previously revealed representatives from the AI industry lobbied the Scottish Government to adopt their own definition of a ‘green data centre’.
Patrick said:
“The Scottish Government have already ignored the overwhelming call from communities for an outright moratorium on new data centre applications. Now there’s a very real risk that they will sit behind closed doors letting the industry write new planning guidance, without letting communities have their say.
“This is a huge failure from the Scottish Government, allowing the corporate capture of our planning system at a time when communities should have a say in how our land, water and energy is being used. By refusing to carry out a robust public consultation ahead of issuing guidance, it seems that the loudest voices we can expect to hear will be the vested interests in the tech industry waiting to profit.
“There must be a clear commitment from the Government that the interests of communities will be paramount, not simply the desires of industry, in the forthcoming guidance.”