Standing on a sodden pavement in solidarity with their common purpose was the unmistakeable, if unexpected, presence of singing sensation Susan Boyle.

Standing shoulder to shoulder with around 200 other campaigners, the quietly reclusive chart star, known to millions as ‘SuBo’, defiantly held up a placard declaring: ‘Say No to Larbert AI Data Centre’. The notice added: ‘Stop selling Scotland to Big Tech.’

The confrontational tone struck a discordant note with SuBo’s normally disarming public persona, but something had clearly riled her to such an extent she was ready to take to the streets to vent her feelings.

The object of her ire exists, for now, only in the virtual world of glossy architect’s plans lodged with planning officials at Falkirk Council. But should it become reality, opponents fear that the hulking monster proposed for the edge of their small town could generate a perfect storm of toxic air pollution, relentless noise and a potentially destabilising demand on the local power grid.

Thousands have already submitted objections to proposals to construct the so-called ‘hyperscale’ AI data centre – a 50-acre computer processing facility capable of hoovering up more power than 300,000 homes.

It is one of a string of data centre planning applications that have sprung up across the Central Belt, as America’s AI giants, fresh from carpeting their homeland in these eye-poppingly vast digital hubs, have started a Scottish land grab to meet their insatiable desire for energy to power their servers.

Read more: Heading to a town near you… vast US-funded data centres that need more power than a small country and have sparked a Wild West-style land grab, with campaigners now fearing they could prove a toxic menace to Scotland’s public health