A77 road closures with diversions: EIR release

Information requested

How many time A77 trunk road has been closed because of

a) road repairs broken down by year since 2020 with an active diversions

b) a road traffic accident broken down by year since 2020 with diversion routes

Under a freedom of information request in addition what is the criteria that a route is deemed suitable replacement for carrying trunk road traffic as a diversionary route. What safety and visual checks are done?

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.

The following table shows how many times the A77 has been closed due to road repairs with an active diversion

Year	Number of closures
2020	15
2021	65
2022	61
2023	45
2024	44

The following table shows how many times the A77 has been closed due to a road traffic accident with a diversion route

Year	Number of closures
2020	4
2021	2
2022	5
2023	3
2024	4

Standard Incident Diversion Routes are alternative routes agreed following liaison between Operating Companies, Local Authorities, Emergency Services and Local Businesses. The routes must be capable of safely accommodating all forms of traffic including large goods vehicles. They are routinely inspected and maintained by the Local Authority. They are also regularly reviewed by the Operating Companies in conjunction with Local Authorities, Emergency Services and Local Businesses to confirm suitability and identify any changes or potential improvements.

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.