Road and footway maintenance and management questions: EIR release
Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.
Information requested
You asked:
We would be obliged if you would provide us with the following information. We confirm that the request is made under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.
1. Has the footway at the locus been adopted for maintenance by you and was it so adopted on 28th June 2019.
2. Have you taken steps to comply with Well-Maintained Highways: Code of Practice for Highway Maintenance Management (2005) and/or Well-Managed Highway Infrastructure: A Code of Practice (2016)? In particular have you formally adopted the recommendations of either Code? Please let us have all relevant documentation .
3. Do you have a Highway Management Plan? If so, please send us a copy.
4. In terms of your policy, what is the frequency of inspection for the footway, and how is the inspection to be carried out? eg. On foot or drive-by.
5. In terms of your policy, what kind of footway defects are considered to be hazardous, and requiring intervention and repair?
6. In terms of your policy, what is the target repair time(s) for defects on roads and footways which are deemed hazardous, and requiring intervention and repair?
7. Please let us have the road and footway inspection and maintenance records for the above locus for the period 28th June 2018 to date. In addition may we have sight of the repairs and job records for the locus for the period 28th June 2018 to date.
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.
I have kept your numbering for ease of reference
1. The footpath on the A78 adjacent to the car park has been adopted by Transport Scotland.
2. Our Operating Company, Scotland TranServ have adopted the code of practice and incorporated it into their Inspection Procedure. This is Annex A to this response.
The information you have requested is available from: http://www.ukroadsliaisongroup.org/download.cfm/docid/C7214A5B-66E1-4994-AA7FBAC360DC5CC7. 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.
3. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs.
4, 5 and 6. The information you have requested is available from Schedule 7 of our Operating Company contract which can be accessed using the following link: https://www.transport.gov.scot/media/35900/sw-combi.pdf. 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.
7. Please refer to Annex B to this response, inspection records for the location. No works were required.
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.
Contact
Please quote the FOI reference
Central Enquiry Unit
Email: ceu@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000
The Scottish Government
St Andrews House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG
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