Environment Branch 
Major Transport Infrastructure Projects 
 
Buchanan House, 58 Port Dundas Road, Glasgow G4 0HF 
Direct Line: 0141 272  7256, Fax: 0141 272 7272 
a
[email address] 
 
 
 
Ms Susan Davis 
Your ref: 
 
 
 
[FOI #9422 email] 
Our ref: 
 
FoI/09/00344 
 
 
Date: 
 
8 April 2009 
 
 
 
 
 
Dear Ms Davis 
 
Road verges: Ecological protection scheme 
 
Thank you for your email of 15 March 2009 requesting information under the Freedom of 
Information (Scotland) Act 2002 about the ecological protection of road verges.  Transport 
Scotland is the government agency with responsibility for the management, development, 
operation and maintenance of the Scottish trunk road network.  This network covers much of 
mainland Scotland and is approximately 3,400 km long.  All other roads are managed by the 
relevant local authority.   
 
Transport Scotland recognises the importance of the trunk road verge in terms of its contribution 
to Scotland’s biological diversity.  Those responsible for the design and delivery of new 
interventions within the trunk road network, as well as those who undertake the management 
and maintenance of the existing soft estate, are required to take due cognisance of the value of 
this ecological resource in the development of plans and programmes, particularly in relation to 
any designated sites. 
 
Transport Scotland does not operate a specific ecological protection scheme for road verges but 
does require consultants and contractors to follow the guidance in the agency’s landscape 
design and management policy document, Cost Effective Landscape: Learning from Nature.  In 
addition, part of the remit of the Operating Companies, who undertake the maintenance of the 
trunk road on behalf of Transport Scotland, is to identify and record areas of ecological 
importance as they develop their maintenance strategies for the routes under their responsibility.  
As long as the variation does not impact on the safety of road users, this provides the 
opportunity to adjust the timing and/or extent of the specified maintenance operations for that 
area in order to safeguard the ecological resource.  
 
Transport Scotland is also in the process of developing a Geographical Information System to 
record and manage the trunk road soft estate and this will provide a greater level of refinement 
in the identification and protection of areas of high ecological value within the trunk road 
boundary.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
www.transportscotland.gov.uk 
abcd An agency of  abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
 
 

---

 
I hope this information is helpful.  If you are unhappy with this response to your request, you 
may ask us to carry out an internal review by writing to Mr David Middleton, Chief Executive, 
Transport Scotland, Buchanan House, 58 Port Dundas Road, Glasgow G4 0HF.  Your request 
should explain why you wish a review to be carried out and should be made within 40 working 
days of receipt of this letter.   We will reply within 20 working days of receipt. If you are not 
satisfied with the result of the review, you then have the right to make a formal complaint to the 
Scottish Information Commissioner. 
 
Yours sincerely 
 
 
 
 
Angus Corby 
Landscape Advisor 
 
Cost Effective Landscape: Learning from Nature 
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library/docs-l/ld-00.htm 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
www.transportscotland.gov.uk 
abcd An agency of  abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
 
 

---