Transport Scotland Traffic Count data B9001 and B9170: EIR release

Information requested

Provide traffic count data for the B9001 road between Rothienorman and Inverurie from 2008 to 2018   and

Provide traffic count data for the B9170 road between Oldmeldrum and Inverurie from 2008 to 2018

Response

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.

In response to your request, please see attached the data collected on both B9001 and B9170. Automatic Number Plate Recognition, (ANPR) and Automatic Traffic Count, (ATC) data is contained within the disc enclosed for 2014 and 2018. 

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we do not have some of the information you have requested.  Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs.  We do not hold any data from 2008 to 2013.   However, you may wish to contact Aberdeenshire Council at foi@aberdeenshire.gov.uk who may be able to help you. 

For ATCs undertaken in 2014 (sites B and G respectively) equipment on B9001 had been vandalised affecting some of the readings. In addition, counts on B9170 were also impacted by a road closure during the first survey week.

Due to the size of the files we are unable to upload the documents referred to above.   

If you wish to consider, please contact us at the address below and we will be happy to provide.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.