Temporary traffic light failure on A835 near Garve: EIR release

Information requested

The number of times your operator BEAR have been called to fix the temporary traffic lights failing at A835 near Garve.

Transport Scotland's ref for matters relating is 202400432791.

Police Scotland were called to an accident last night, 14th Oct 2024, after the traffic lights each end were stuck on green. Living locally we know these lights are failing frequently and being reported.

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.

For the purposes of this response searches have been undertaken from the date the temporary traffic lights were installed at A835 near Garve, 3 January 2024, to the date of your request. BEAR Scotland advise they have received a total of 8 incident referrals regarding the temporary traffic lights at A835 near Garve between 1 February 2024 and 15 October 2024. They are as follows:

Incident Reference	Date	Outcome
I-23-NW-02068	14/02/2024	Lights checked; no fault recorded
I-23-NW-02198	03/03/24	Lights changed
I-24-NW-00412	01/06/2024	Lights checked; no fault recorded
I-24-NW-00507	15/06/2024	Lights reset and working correctly
I-24-NW-00696	14/07/2024	Lights checked; no fault recorded
I-24-NW-01060	08/09/2024	Batteries in lights changed
I-24-NW-01268	14/10/2024	Lights replaced with a new set
I-24-NW-01270	15/10/2024	Lights checked; no fault recorded

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