In Issue 203, we covered Pilrig resident Harald Tobermann's single-minded effort to secure even the most basic information about roadworks on East Scotland Street Lane ('Local activist illluminates', p.1).
For legal reasons, Spurtle cannot simply reproduce the relevant correspondence of 4 January from the Council official without explicit permission.
So instead, below, we paraphrase what we believe it may have contained.
The correspondence concerned Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRS) as they pertained to works at East Scotland Street Lane.
The official acting for the Council's Head of Legal and Administrative Services confirmed that he had reconsidered Mr Tobermann's request for information about the East Scotland Street works, and would now provide information about:
- total costs
- relevant Council budget headings
- details of non-Council sources of funding, if any (for example, developer contributions, ring-fenced funding, and so forth)
- a timeline for scoring, authorisation, tender and works.
Answering point for point, we understand the official said:
- the total cost for the works was £51,348.81, comprising £28,686.29 for the footway works and £22,662.52 for carriageway works
- the works were funded from the Road and Footway Capital Investment budget 2011/12
- there were no non-Council funding sources
- all Edinburgh's footways and carriageways were inspected on a 20-month cycle. If it were felt that work needed to be carried out in a certain street then a further inspection would then be carried out and a condition score applied to a scheme in the street. Schemes were rescored if the condition of the scheme had changed in the 20-month cycle. The last condition assessment of East Scotland Lane was carried out on 3 June 2010.
The 'Road and Footway Investment – Capital Programme for 2011/12' was approved by the Transport, Infrastructure and Environment Committee on 23 November 2010.
The footway works started on 11 April 2011 were finished on 30 June 2011. The carriageway works started on 27 May 2011 were completed the same day.