A702 traffic volumes through the junction at Hillend near Edinburgh: EIR release

“I should be grateful if you would provide details of traffic volumes through the junction at Hillend near Edinburgh. Hillend junction is immediately south of Lothianburn junction between the A720 Edinburgh city bypass and the A702.

The location for which I am requesting the information comprises the junction of the A702 Edinburgh to Abington trunk road, the A703 Seafield Moor Road, and Old Pentland Road. A note of traffic volumes on each of these four arms of the junction would be appreciated.

Traffic volume at this location is variable and at its peak at weekday morning rush hour during school term time. An indication of traffic volumes at such time would be most useful.”

As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA. 

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

Transport Scotland may not always have traffic data for all trunk road junctions, however, in this instance we were aware that data has been collected at this location to support planning applications.

The information you have requested is available from the Midlothian Council online planning portal (https://planning-applications.midlothian.gov.uk/OnlinePlanning/).

The relevant planning application numbers are:

•  15/00364/PPP
•  16/00882/DPP

These are accessible within the simple search field and the following documents will be available to download:

•  15/00364/PPP: Transport Assessment Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.
•  16/00882/DPP: Transport Strategy Report and (and associated appendices). 

Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.