Information relating to M8 road conditions: EIR release

Information requested

You asked for the following information relating to the M8 at Paisley on 3 October 2020:

1. Are you aware of flooding in the area on the subject date.
2. Does flooding regularly occur in this area.
3. Confirm there are drains along the road and how often they are attended to.
4. When was maintenance last carried out on the drains.

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.

1. No flooding incidents were reported at this location on 3 October 2020.

2. Our records show that there has been only one flooding incident which occurred during 2013.

3. Drains are located along this section of the network and are attended to annually unless additional visits are required. Weekly safety patrols are undertaken to identify and rectify any defects, such as flooding or ponding water, on Trunk Roads

4. Maintenance was last carried out to drains at this location during August/September 2020.

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.