Apatura’s webinars on its proposed hyperscale AI data centre in Larbert have not shifted campaigners’ opposition, while leaving several practical questions in sharp focus: more than 200 proposed back-up generators, water use and the shape of the consultation itself.
Watch Desk analysis
What happened
Resultsense reports that Falkirk Council has received more than 7,000 objections. Apatura held two webinars, one for nearby residents and one for the wider council area. A resident quoted in the report described the sessions as a “long, one-way presentation”. The planning decision remains with the council’s process.
Apatura development director Fraser Blackwood said the site would connect directly to Denny Substation and use a battery storage site the company owns in Plean. He said cooling would use a closed loop requiring 5.9 million litres to fill, with occasional top-ups, and that this would be a planning condition. The report says the proposal includes more than 200 back-up diesel generators; Blackwood said Apatura wants to reduce their number and testing hours, but no revised figures were reported.
The company has submitted a health impact screening to the council, which is due to publish it. Apatura also cited consultant estimates of 297 jobs on site, 218 more in the wider economy and £2.3 billion in investment. Those are estimates advanced in support of the proposal, not independently established outcomes. The company said a community fund would generate £1.8 million a year.
Why it matters
This is a concrete AI-infrastructure proposal with local consequences, not just another abstract argument about data-centre growth. The reported details give residents and planners specific issues to test: generator numbers and operating hours, the health screening, water requirements and whether projected economic benefits materialise.
The dispute also turns on what counts as meaningful consultation. Providing technical answers at webinars may not satisfy residents who want a chance to challenge the answers directly. That distinction matters wherever communities are asked to weigh large infrastructure plans against promises of local benefit.
Our read
The next useful evidence is not another round of broad assurances. It is the health screening, a firm account of generator numbers and testing, and a consultation process residents regard as more than a presentation with questions attached. The jobs and investment figures deserve scrutiny too: projections are a case for approval, not benefits already delivered.
What to watch
- The council’s publication of the health impact screening.
- Whether Apatura sets out specific reductions to generator numbers or testing hours.
- How the planning process addresses objections and the consultation criticism.
- Whether the project’s projected jobs, investment and community-fund payments become binding commitments.
Discussion spark: Should a developer have to offer residents a genuinely two-way consultation before a major AI data-centre proposal advances, or are formal planning objections enough?
Sources and evidence
- Larbert campaigners unmoved after Apatura data centre webinars – Resultsense (5 November 2026, 10:40 UTC)
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