Transport Scotland: Flooding on A737 Northbound: EIR release

Information requested

With reference to flooding on A737 Northbound, 400 Yards before St James Interchange Slip, you asked for the following:

"Please can you investigate the reason this location is constantly flooding. Have been reporting this location for over 10 years and there is still no improvement. The gullies are totally blocked. Under freedom of information please can you supply all records of any gulley cleaning and reports of reason these gullies are still blocked ."

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.

Please see Annex A to this response for a copy of all records held for gully cleaning at this location. 

These date back to 2017 which is the earliest date held.

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 the information you have requested because neither Transport Scotland nor out Operating Company Amey hold reports on why the gullies at this location are still blocked. However, Amey will continue to address any drainage defects identified during routine weekly safety inspections or through notification from the public. If there are any issues requiring further investigation, Amey will make progress through their drainage strategy.

It may also be helpful to note that specific defects on the trunk road network can be reported via Transport Scotland’s Freephone Customer Care number, 0800 028 1414. Reports will be attended to by the relevant Operating Company. 

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 information about blocked gullies, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold. 

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.

EIR 202500451024 - Information released - Annex A

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