Payments made to Old Military Road landowner: EIR Appeal

Information requested

“I don't understand why there is no timescale to reopen both carriageways, returning the route to a "normal" trunk road. Surely there is a planned programme of works which will enable both lanes to open, so what is the completion date?

Also, can I ask what has been paid to the OMR landowner over the last five years, broken down by year, and what is the current weekly payment which is being made?”

Response

Further to your application to the Scottish Information Commissioner in relation to your request for information for the following:

“I don't understand why there is no timescale to reopen both carriageways, returning the route to a "normal" trunk road. Surely there is a planned programme of works which will enable both lanes to open, so what is the completion date?

Also, can I ask what has been paid to the OMR landowner over the last five years, broken down by year, and what is the current weekly payment which is being made?”

I am writing to advise you that we have given further consideration to the information previously withheld and have determined that this information can now be disclosed in full.

I have determined that we were not entitled to apply an exception under regulation 10(5)(e). I apologise for the delay in providing you with this information.

Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), Transport Scotland is not required to provide information which it does not have. The completion dates for works requiring traffic management and associated lane closures are determined by too many variables and therefore we do not have the information you have requested because we currently do not have a projected completion date for the works to allow both carriageways to reopen. A return to two lane operation of the A83 directly below the location of the August 2020 landslide will be considered on completion of a further catch-pit adjacent to the A83. We continue to apply a safety first approach to the management of the situation at the Rest and be Thankful and we will only return the road to two lane operation if we believe it safe to do so for members of the public, operatives and the work force, considering factors including weather and hillside conditions.

After completion of the worked noted above, further mitigation works may be progressed on other sections of the hillside. Plans and programmes for these works are currently being finalised and these are likely to require the use of temporary traffic signals during their construction.

Please see the following table for details of payments made to the landowner for the years 2016-2021.

	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021*
Total payment	£64,126.16	£0	£144,883.94	£41,865.85	£291,607.57	£18,634.00

*to date of your initial application of 12 May 2021.

Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), Transport Scotland is not required to provide information which it does not have. We do not have some of the information you have requested because the landowner is not paid weekly but receives an annual retainer.

The exceptions are 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 exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information about the A83 at the Rest and Be Thankful, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

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