Related inspection, maintenance and correspondence for A823(M)/M90 junction: EIR release

The following documents are requested covering the period 24th August 2017 to 24th February 2018 in terms of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002:-

1. Records of inspection for the relevant stretch of road;

2. Maintenance records relating to the relevant stretch of road, including records of independent contractors working on the relevant stretch of road;

3. All correspondence to independent contractors relating to work carried out by them in the relevant area.

4. All correspondence by the local authority to third parties requesting repairs to defects on the relevant stretch of road in which the responsibility to repair the defect belongs to the third party in question;

5. Statement of the Roads Authorities Policy under the Code of Practice for delivering best value in Highway Maintenance 2001 or, alternatively records of the Minutes of Highway Authority of the local authority meetings where maintenance or repair policy has been discussed or decided;

6. Records of complaints about the state of the road at the accident locus; and

7. Records of other accidents which have occurred on the relevant stretch of road.'

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.