Total budget for capital road projects in Dumfries and Galloway: FOI release

FOI reference: FOI/18/02343  
Date received: 26 August 2018  
Date responded: 21 September 2018

Information requested

1. Could you tell me the total budget for capital road projects in Dumfries and Galloway in the last twelve financial years?

2. Could you tell me the total budget for capital road projects in Scotland in the last twelve financial years?

Response

As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIR’s), 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.

In relation to question 1, we have invested over £65m in a variety of projects to improve safety and journey times on the trunk road network in the Dumfries and Galloway area since 2006. The table below lists schemes which have been completed in Dumfries and Galloway.

Motorway and Trunk Road Schemes Opened Since 2007 In Dumfries and Galloway
Route	Scheme	Outturn Cost (£millions)	Status
A75	Overtaking Opportunities (3 Schemes at Newton Stewart / Barfil to Bettyknowes / Planting End to Drumflower)	13.55	Scheme opened 2008
A76	Glenairlie	6.34	Scheme opened 2009
A7	Auchenrivock	10.25	Scheme opened 2009
A75	Cairntop to Barlae	7.80	Scheme opened 2010
A75	Dunragit Bypass	17.13	Scheme opened 2014
A75	Hardgrove to Kinmount	11.60	Scheme opened 2014
	Total	66.66

 

Further assessment of recommendations for strategic transport infrastructure priorities in Dumfries and Galloway and for the rest of Scotland are being undertaken as part of the an update to the Strategic Transport Projects Review.

This will allow us to consider how to better connect Dumfries with its links north and south through a variety of road and rail interventions, ensuring that we strike the right balance of transport investments in the region.

In addition to the capital projects listed above, there has been an element of capitalised maintenance undertaken over the time period however we do not hold the information in the format requested. The data is held on a route basis rather than by Local Authority area.

In relation to question 2, details of our budgets are published annually and are already publicly available.

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. The following link provides access to the information you have requested: https://www.gov.scot/Topics/Government/Finance/18127/Documents

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