A96 Corridor Review details: EIR release

Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.


Information requested

Last week Transport Scotland published its A96 Corridor Review, which included a ‘refined package’ which would include spending on active travel.

Has Transport Scotland:

1. Made any assessment of how much these active travel routes would cost? Please break down by walking routes, cycling routes etc.

2. Made any assessment of where these routes would be?

Response

As all of 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. Made any assessment of how much these active travel routes would cost? Please break down by walking routes, cycling routes etc.

As outlined in Section 1.3 of the A96 Corridor Review Strategic Business Case – Transport Appraisal Report (Draft) Appendix C: Preliminary Appraisal Summary tables, determining the estimated cost of this option is dependent on a number of factors including the location, scale and complexity of providing active travel routes and placemaking improvements within communities. Further analysis and assessment would be required throughout the various stages of design development, a level of detail beyond that which has been undertaken as part of the Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance (STAG) appraisal undertaken. As a result, the STAG appraisal does not define the user types, width, surfacing and other aspects such as how active travel routes could be provided within communities.

Capital costs for the implementation of Active Communities would depend on local constraints and the scale and number of interventions proposed but would typically be anticipated to be in the range of £0.5m to £30m per community/location. The total estimated cost to introduce Active Communities across the A96 corridor is expected to fall within the range of £51m - £100m.

Please break down by walking routes, cycling routes etc.

We are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), the Scottish Government is not required to provide information which it does not have. The Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested because we do not hold a breakdown of these routes.

This exception 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 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 the requested information, clearly, we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

2. Made any assessment of where these routes would be?

As outlined in Section 6.3.5 of the A96 Corridor Review Strategic Business Case - Transport Appraisal Report, in the Refined Package, Active Communities are considered in the settlements of Nairn [bypassed as part of the separate A96 Dualling Inverness to Nairn (including Nairn Bypass) scheme that has ministerial consent], Forres, Elgin, Lhanbryde, Mosstodloch, Fochabers, Keith, Huntly, Inverurie, Kintore and Blackburn.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

Contact

Please quote the FOI reference
Central Correspondence Unit
Email: contactus@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000

The Scottish Government
St Andrew's House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG

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