Policy on signage to local businesses related to AWPR and Balmedie/Tipperty works: EIR release

FOI reference: FOI/18/02736
Date received: 4 July 2018  
Date responded: 12 October 2018

 

 

Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route/Balmedie to Tipperty (AWPR/B-T) Project
 
Thank you for your request dated 4 July 2018 received on 1 October 2018, under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA).
 
Please advise the policy on signage to local businesses related to the AWPR and Balmedie/Tipperty works.
 
I note that there is mention of one business by name, Trump International, on signage around Balmedie/Menie.  Why has this one business been so favoured and is the Project recovering all costs associated with such signage from that business?
 

 

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.

 

Should a particular business wish to apply for authorised permanent signage on the network, further information can be found on the Trunk Road and Motorway Tourist Signing Guidance in Scotland: 

https://www.transport.gov.scot/media/10318/trbo-transport-scotland-trunk-road-and-motorway-tourist-signing-guidance-march-2016-v3.pdf
 
For all other roads, information can be found by going to: https://www.visitscotland.org/supporting-your-business/advice/brown-tourist-signs 
 
Businesses that already had approved Visit Scotland signage in place prior to the commencement of construction of the project were given additional temporary directional signage to compensate for the ‘brown’ signs that had been affected by the works. The costs associated with these signs will be met by the project. Should a business wish to apply for future new signs, the above policy guidance applies and those would be at a cost to the business.