A Fife Community Council chairperson has said they were “taken aback” at plans for a massive data centre complex next to their village.

Andrea Cail, who is chair of Auchtertool Community Council, said they were shocked at the scale of plans for the facility on land to the north-west of the village.

ILI Cato Limited are seeking planning permission in principle for a data centre campus on land to the north-west of the village.

The proposals include a complex of data hall buildings – which could be as high as 35 metres – as well as electricity substations, security fencing, gatehouses, internal access roads, parking, pathways, associated ancillary infrastructure, and landscaping including ponds, landscape bunds, new woodland, wetland, hedgerow, scrub, and wildflower meadow habitats.

Ms Cail said that while they have been in discussions with the developer over the last year, they were shocked at the scale of the proposals submitted to Fife Council.

“It is a big development,” she said.

“I think to say we were somewhat taken aback is a bit of an understatement.

“I have been informed this morning that the world’s largest single data centre is in Nevada and is 650 megawatts.

“That is only 50 megawatts bigger than what is being proposed for our wee hamlet here in Auchtertool.

It is a tiny part of Scotland compared to Nevada.

“We have only got 215 houses in the village.

We are not big.

It is a small, compact village.” A planning statement on behalf of the developers explained that the Cato Data Centre will be the flagship of three interconnected data centres, known as ‘The Stoics’.

It continued: “The projects would provide essential infrastructure across the Scottish Central Belt where IT services can be delivered in close proximity to the majority of end users, and where sufficient land electrical connection and renewable energy supply are available.

“The applicant is able to ensure green energy supply via power usage agreements from other projects under their control, including Pumped Hydro Storage schemes.” Each data hall would house a “precision-engineered environment” where data is processed, stored, replicated and secured, in servers and computer processors with IT equipment and associated mechanical and electrical plant.

Each data hall building would have its own office space with the....