Annan says 'no!'
Well over 200 concerned local residents turned out for this week’s meeting of Annan Community Council at the St Andrew's Social Club – by far the council’s biggest attendance ever.
They heard a presentation from the businessmen and investors proposing a massive hyperscale AI data centre to be built next to the small village of Creca in south west Scotland.
It was a very convincing presentation: by the end of the evening, everyone in the room was convinced that the proposed development of the site will be a blight to the environment, a massive eyesore on the landscape and a source of multiple problems for the community.
To be fair, not quite everyone: when the chair took an indicative vote as to who was for or against the CX Data Centre, one man voted in favour, out of everybody else in the room (admirable bravery, perhaps?).
Though some people were already part of the grassroots, community-led campaign against the development, most had come along simply to find out more - stating that they felt misled that plans had not been well publicised before now.
The strength of feeling against the centre cannot be dismissed as NIMBYism. Peoples’ contributions to discussion were well-informed, precise and shaped by genuine concern about issues from noise, dangerous emissions, impacts on wildlife, water and air quality, the disruption of construction work, and questions about the logic of investing in AI in any case.
People saw through questionable claims about job creation (AI technology is actually a threat to employment and to young peoples’ careers in particular), and the presenters’ perceived dissembling over the true intended scale of the buildings they envisage, and the power that will be required to operate their technology.
Annan’s stand against this AI data centre is just one example of people expressing concern and stating valid questions about a slew of proposed developments across our country.
Will local peoples’ concerns be heard? More importantly, will they be respected and acted upon? As a leaflet given out at the events states: 'who gets to decide the future of Dumfries and Galloway - the people who live here, or corporations chasing profit?'
Annan residents and supporters have organised the Say NO to CX Data Centre campaign, which is focussed on ensuring that local people have all the information they need about the proposed development and can make their voices heard. One step the campaign is urging people to take is to submit views to the Scottish Parliament committees gathering views on hyperscale data centres: responses are required by 14 November. Find out more here: https://aprs.scot/news/scottish-parliament-launch-survey-on-hyperscale-data-centres-in-scotland-respond-now/
Published 16 October 2026
