Thousands protest in Edinburgh against AI data centres as Scotland prepares new planning guidance

Thousands of people marched down Edinburgh's Royal Mile to the Scottish Parliament to protest against large-scale AI data centres, part of a wave of protests across Europe. Campaigners cited noise, construction disruption, electricity demand and environmental impact, including plans for a site at Chapelcross, Dumfries and Galloway, that would have a capacity of 1,000MW, against the roughly 12MW of DataVita's Airdrie site, currently thought to be Scotland's largest. The Scottish government said it will publish new planning guidance on data centres before the end of the year and now requires ministers to be notified of new applications, with an Environmental Impact Assessment mandated for sites exceeding 50 megawatts.