AI Data Centre Objection
P/26/0237/FUL Construction of an AI Data Centre in Glenbervie Business Park
For those unable to attend the meeting in Kinnaird Primary School, 17 June, the speaker wanted to highlight the points that he presented to those attending.
Addendum
The link below takes you directly to Falkirk Council Website if you wish to object. The final date for objections is 2nd July 2026. Please ensure that you tick the Objection box. NB Next meeting 7pm, Thursday, 25th June 2026, Dobbie Hall.
- The development: Is for a 300MWh AI datacentre, not the thing that hosts your bank, pictures etc, Something that is capable of edits pictures, creates videos, writes emails, writes letters, targets schools for military, defrauds companies with false voice interaction, false passports, tells people that they need to commit suicide, when given a prompt or interaction.
They use many, many more times the energy needed to store photos, do digital banking etc. - The AI datacentre is 10's of metres from a care home, 100's of metres from an 860 bed A&E hospital, 100's from a children’s nursery, 1000's of people within 1km.
- Abundant data exists from around the world, that AI datacentres are appalling neighbours. Noise, pollution of air, health impact. What damage will the 160 diesel generators cause during testing let alone operation, within the surrounding community? What are the impacts of sub 20Hz sound waves generated by fans, coolers, power supplies for 24 hours, 365 days?
- Current planning rules were not designed to accommodate the known and unknown issues surrounding them. Example, University of Cambridge research around the world showing that, "islands of heat", are experienced around datacentres for up to 10km (6 miles), with typical impact of 2 degrees Celsius. Extreme measurements of 9 degrees Celsius within 1km (0.6 of a mile).
- If a battery farm is being built in Plean to store energy, 400MWh, for the times wind farms are not producing electricity - no wind blowing. Why does the plan call for a direct connection from there to the Glenbervie site?
- False portrayal of £ billion investment. The lie that underlies this and other planned developments is that we can expect huge investments creating wealth in the Scottish and UK economies. Beyond the construction of the building, (guess £10 million), the equipment that forms the £ billion is from companies making GPU's for AI, these are American with manufacture currently in Asia.
- Large Language Model AI platforms are currently coming from US companies, hence, likely end customer of the development will be an US company. As an example. through trade deals, Amazon pays 7% corporation tax, Simon Howie in Larbert pay 25% on their profits. (Correction - Malcom Allan).
- Employment, will peak with construction. Long term, it can be expected that 20-30 people will be employed full time, as already built examples illustrate.
- Public subsidy, the UK government has told potential developers that they can expect, Specific regions across Great Britain (including sites in Scotland, Wales, and Northern England) are designed as AI Growth Zones, where developers benefit from streamlined planning, priority grid connections, and potential electricity bill discounts. The electricity discount, thought to be £24 per mega-watt-hour, a potential £63 million in Larbert, on current plans, about £1 billion in Scotland.
- With the current plans in place, the reported 26 to come. how is Scotland going to meet it's goal of zero-carbon footprint?
- We need to appreciate that the motivation behind these developments is about money. Microsoft have already announced that they want the world to move to cloud run, subscription based computing using their "365" initiative, core being Co-Pilot AI tool, supporting Office 365, and other programmes. Google search engine now fronted by Gemini AI doing AI interpretive. Oracle and SpaceX building AI datacentres, desperate for clients, in form of OpenAI, Antrhropic. OpenAI / Anthropic building a business model around selling tokens for use on their platforms. Circular investment from semiconductor suppliers giving and promising investment in platform providers if they use their GPU's.
The scale of impact of these developments are not things that local planners should be having a say on. Like fracking, these have enormous impact consequences and must be the subject of government Public Enquiries for each and every application.
For Larbert, the community has to decide, beyond the current planning objections, what next steps it wants to take place.
Large public meetings? Websites? Door to door campaigning? Employing planning solicitors?
There being a potential cost to each of these that individuals cannot solely bare. Needing all to help if wanted.
Looking to help
We will aim to respond to all emails however please note this is setup by volunteers.
The scale of impact of these developments are not things that local planners should be having a say on. Like fracking, these have enormous impact consequences and must be the subject of government Public Enquiries for each and every application.
For Larbert, the community has to decide, beyond the current planning objections, what next steps it wants to take place.
Large public meetings? Websites? Door to door campaigning? Employing planning solicitors?
There being a potential cost to each of these that individuals cannot solely bare. Needing all to help if wanted.