Adoption of the site in Elgin at the corner of the A96 and Reiket Lane: EIR release

Information requested

Can the extent of the adoption of the site (as shown on the attached plan and located in Elgin at the corner of the A96 and Reiket Lane) by Transport Scotland, as of June 2024, please be confirmed by providing a copy of Transport Scotland’s plan confirming/operational maintenance boundary or other relevant documents?

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.

Response to 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. We do not have some of the information you have requested because Transport Scotland does not maintain a plan of the extent of road adoption of the trunk road network and therefore we are unable to provide a plan showing this.

Transport Scotland maintains historic plans that are indicative of the areas managed and maintained by Scottish Ministers, but these are not considered to be a plan that shows the extent of the current trunk road network. From time-to-time Transport Scotland does produce plans of specific sections of the trunk road using information from a number of sources.

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 Transport Scotland's Operation Boundary, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

However, the land identified is at the south-east corner of the A96/ Reiket Lane junction in Elgin. The A96 at Reiket Lane is Trunk road and Scottish Ministers are the road authority for it. The road was modified by works carried out by a developer, Springfield Properties PLC, following consent granted by Scottish Ministers in a Minute of Agreement dated April 2006. Relevant documents in determining the extent of the trunk road would include any drawings annexed to such an Agreement and any “as built” information provided by the developer on completion of the works.

The Minute of Agreement is included in Annex A to this response. An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exception is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public nterest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception.

A representative from Transport Scotland will contact you in the near future to discuss this matter further.

About FOI

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

EIR 202400425886 - Information Released - Annex A

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