Transport Scotland A83 Rest And Be Thankful closure statistics: FOI release

Information requested

1. From the period of 1990 – present day, how many times has the A83 “Rest And Be Thankful” been closed due to landslips, and how many days did each period of closure last?

2. If the information is not held as far back as 1990, then please can you provide the information for whatever time period this is held for?

3. If it is deemed too costly to provide the information for the period requested, please can you provide the information for the period which costs permit?

Response

The following table provides the dates the A83 Rest and Be Thankful was closed as a result of landslides and the duration of each closure.

Date of Closure	Number of days closed
28/10/2007	14
08/09/2009	2
01/12/2011	2
22/02/2012	3
22/06/2012	1.5
01/08/2012	2
19/11/2012	1
03/10/2013	1
06/03/2014	5
28/10/2014	5
30/12/2015	2
04/01/2016	3
09/10/2018	9
30/01/2020	2.5
04/08/2020	34
13/09/2020	11
20/10/2020	1.5
30/10/2020	70
18/02/2021	13

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Transport Scotland does not have some of the information you have requested. This is because we only hold records of closures of the A83 at the Rest and Be Thankful from 2007 onwards.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that Transport Scotland does not have all the information you have requested.

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. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in closures of the A83 Rest and Be Thankful, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

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