Cycle and pedestrian counters on the Forth Road Bridge: EIR release

Information requested

1. Can you please tell me the cost of implementing the cycle and pedestrian count at the south end of the Forth Road Bridge

2. What are the benefits of the count considering that they have been out of action most of the winter?

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. Total initial costs for the works are £113,065.00

2. The counters were installed as part of the tourist improvement works on the Forth Road Bridge to identify the foot and cycle traffic over the Bridge. These are considered non-essential infrastructure and remedial work has been delayed due to Covid restrictions. We hope to have these operational again in the near future.

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.