Publication - FOI/EIR release

M8 off ramp Junction 18/Bothwell Street, ownership and date built: EIR release

Published: 7 June 2019
Topic: Public sector, Transport
FOI reference: FOI/19/01373
Date received: 31 May 2019
Date responded: 6 June 2019

Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.

Information requested

All documentation you hold showing:

when the M8 off ramp at Junction 18 onto Bothwell Street was built,
information on the ownership of this section of motorway, and
how title to that area of land was acquired and who owns it now

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.

To clarify, the M8 off ramp onto Bothwell Street is Junction 19. I have numbered our response for ease of reference.

1. Charing Cross was opened to traffic on 4 February 1972.

2. Under the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984, The Scottish Ministers are responsible for the management and maintenance of this trunk route and related infrastructure. Please see Burden Detail contained within the attached land plan, Annex A, obtained in 2008 for bridge maintenance works being undertaken at that time.

3. The attached land plan at Annex A was obtained by us in 2008 and land ownership may have changed in the intervening period. To obtain an up to date position on land ownership, you may wish to contact Registers of Scotland who can undertake a Land Search on the solum beneath the Bothwell Street Off-Ramp.

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