Transport Scotland - Rose Street Subway (Inverness) traffic orders: EIR release

Information requested

Until about 1985 there used to be a 4-way junction in Inverness of: Longman Rd / Rose St / Railway Terr / Innes St.

As part of the construction of the Longman Rd (A82) overbridge, the so-called Rose St Subway was created to retain a route to Innes St. This runs under Longman Rd and connects the east end of Innes St to Rose St.

I would like to know the status of the route through this subway.

Note - Implicit in these questions is a request for Traffic Orders.

Before the subway was built, the route was a carriageway with footways.

Q.1 - Were Traffic Orders produced to reflect its change of use?
It would seem obvious that the subway is a pedestrian route.

Q.2 - People cycle there, but is that legal, or is cycling banned?
The geometry at the Rose St end prevents most motor vehicle access.

Q.3 - But are motor vehicles legally banned from using the subway?
Inside each end of the subway there is a pair of staggered metal barriers.

Q.4 - When were these installed and what was the justification?

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.

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. Transport Scotland does not have the information you have requested because while the structure is a Transport Scotland Asset, the surface beneath at ground level, underpass and associated PTRO’s for use of including prohibition of use is with The Highland Council including revoking of previous Orders.

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 Traffic Orders in relation to, the so-called Rose St Subway that was created to retain a route to Innes St which is located under the Longman Rd (A82) overbridge, we cannot provide information that we do not have, therefore we are unable to answer your questions listed above however you may wish to submit an FOI request to The Highland Council, you can do this using the following link – Freedom of Information - Highland Council

Transport Scotland and it’s Operating Company, Bear Scotland does not hold any records/TTRO/PTRO in relation to the underpass as noted above, however Appendix A is an extract from Edinburgh Gazette from 1986, which refers to Innes Street stopping up Order.

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 202600508071 - Information released - Appendix A

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