Scotland’s countryside charity
We are Action to Protect Rural Scotland, more often known as APRS. We campaign to protect, enhance and promote Scotland’s countryside and rural landscapes for everyone’s benefit, and we support others to do the same.
About APRSAPRS Campaigns
Having a say in your local area
We support communities to protect their special places, especially Green Belts around our towns and cities that provide space for people and nature
National Parks
We want more National Parks – the very best of our landscapes, providing livelihoods and opportunities to visit.
Energy Project
Read about our work on energy, climate and the planning system. Our key campaigns are data centres and battery storage.
News Highlights
Today we are publishing a report on employment and jobs reviewing publicly available figures globally for data centre employment including audited reports related to government funding schemes and other data from independent sources.
We have made a map of the hyperscale data centre projects being planned in Scotland. Click on the map to find out information on the capacity, stage of planning, developer. And each proposed site has a dedicated webpage with more information including maps and plans, links to planning documents, and contact details of local campaign groups.
In this blog post Kat reflects on the decision to refuse a hyperscale data centre in Edinburgh and what this means for future decisions and our data centre campaign. This was first published in Bella Caledonia
APRS has calculated that a hyperscale data centre proposed for Edinburgh is planning to use diesel generators for back-up power which would be equivalent to over a hundred thousand idling diesel cars.
A report published today reveals that the Scottish Government has never refused planning permission for any large battery storage facility. As a result of this, Scotland now has nearly three times as much consented battery storage capacity, as is needed by 2030, and more than twice as much as is needed by 2050.
APRS, Scotland’s Countryside Charity, has launched a petition calling on the Scottish Government to make Environmental Impact Assessments compulsory for data centres and to issue strict standards for energy efficiency and water use.
Nikki Sinclair, our National Parks Project Manager, gave evidence to the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee of the Scottish Parliament on the Natural Environmental Bill. This Bill, in part, updates some of the legislation around National Parks and we hope will improve how they function and their effectiveness.
An important Planning Appeal in the Court of Session which would have impacted on the protections for Green Belt that APRS fought for in the National Planning Framework 4, has been refused.
This blog records the campaign against the deposit return scheme and tried to explain a bit of what happened.
Scotland loves National Parks
After the axing of Galloway National Park, read this analysis of the anatomy of the anti-campaign.
Environmental Campaigning in the age of misinformation
Donate
Every donation is greatly appreciated by APRS, so thank you for choosing our charity and helping us to continue our work.
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