Scotland could freeze datacentre projects in challenge to UK's AI strategy

Scotland could freeze datacentre projects in challenge to UK's AI strategy The Scottish government is about to consider a sweeping moratorium on building new datacentres, putting a key plank of the UK's AI strategy at risk. Last Sunday the Scottish National party (SNP)'s national council passed a motion to freeze all new datacentres in Scotland. That motion has been sent to the Scottish government to consider. It could apply to all datacentre projects that have not yet received planning permission - although its exact implementation is up to the Scottish government to decide. Lesley Backhouse, who attended the national council meeting, said that Scotland's current datacentre plans amounted to "overdevelopment" and were "intrusive and not keeping with the local environment".