The question is not whether to build AI infrastructure. It is where, how, on whose land, with whose water, and with what accountability to the communities that live there.
AI will be part of how humanity addresses the hardest problems it faces. Climate modelling. Drug discovery. Resource optimisation. The Firewalkers does not oppose that. We never have.
What we oppose is the manner of building. The speed that outpaces regulation. The planning applications processed in 12-week windows that most affected communities don't know about. The data centres proposed for ancient moorland, green belt, water-stressed catchments — because those sites are cheap and available, not because they are right.
We oppose the absence of cumulative environmental accounting. The water consumption figures buried in appendices. The energy claims that assume 100% renewable without specifying when or how. The community consultation processes that are technically compliant but practically invisible.
Good AI infrastructure exists. We know what it looks like. We want more of it. This page is our attempt to say clearly what that means — so that when we object to something, nobody can mistake our position for blanket opposition to technology.
Data centres belong on former industrial land, near existing grid infrastructure, in places already shaped by human activity — not on protected landscapes, moorland, or agricultural land that has never been developed.
Not power purchase agreements that claim renewable status while drawing fossil fuel energy from the grid at peak times. Actual co-located renewable generation, or storage to bridge the gap, verified and reported publicly.
Every data centre should publish its daily water consumption figures. Cumulative impact across a region should be assessed before any individual application is approved. Communities have the right to know what is being taken from their water table.
Twelve weeks is not enough. Consultation should begin before an application is formally submitted, be conducted in plain language, and actively reach the communities most affected — not just those who already know how to navigate planning portals.
The Environment Act 2021 requires 10% biodiversity net gain on all major developments in England. This should be enforced rigorously for data centres, and equivalent standards applied across Scotland, Wales, and Ireland.
Where data centres are built near communities, those communities should receive measurable, binding benefits — local employment, energy price reductions, infrastructure investment — not just planning conditions on noise and landscaping.
The Firewalkers is not interested in obstruction. We are interested in accountability. If you are developing data centre infrastructure and you want to know what responsible siting looks like from the community side — we are open to that conversation.