‘It’s smoke and mirrors’: hope turns to fear in Scottish village chosen for AI datacentre

According to The Guardian, residents of a Scottish village are turning from hope to suspicion over a planned AI datacentre. In Newarthill, east of Glasgow, locals were promised transformative investment and "the jobs of the future." Instead, they fear those jobs and that money may never materialize, while a badly planned complex could force them to sell their homes and surrender green belt land. The Guardian reports that late last year, representatives of Oakes Energy Services began knocking on doors, inviting residents to individual meetings. In letters reviewed by the paper, they described plans for a solar farm and made offers, some say, of free solar panels, tree planting, or even cash for their properties. Now one resident sums up the mood bluntly: "It's smoke and mirrors."

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