FOI/202400399673 · FOI/EIR · partially withheld
A83 'Rest And Be Thankful' road closures: EIR release
Information requested
"The number of times the A83 'Rest And Be Thankful' has been closed, since February 16, 2022 and how many days did each period of closure last."
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
Over the period requested, the A83 was closed on 34 occurrences over 67 calendar days. During these incidents, the Old Military Road local diversion was used on all but 5 days (1 occurrence), when traffic used the strategic diversion via Dalmally/Inveraray, with details and durations noted in Annex A.
About FOI
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Detected exemption language
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.