Road Closure Information

The request was partially successful.

Dear Carmarthenshire County Council,

An event took place in Carmarthen on Tuesday 1st January 2019. The area was closed using the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 as Amended by the Road Traffic (Temporary Restrictions Act) 1991
The area closed was as follow:

'Carmarthenshire County Council hereby gives notice that no person shall cause any vehicle to proceed along that length of road known as Blue Street, Dark Gate, Lammas Street, Morley Street and Mansel Street Carmarthen, from a point 116 metres north east of its junction with Blue Street roundabout, for a total distance of 558 metres in a north easterly direction.

1/ Please confirm the application date to Carmarthenshire County Council for the road closure.
2/ Please confirm who applied to Carmarthenshire County Council for the Road Closure .Please provide the actual road closure application document .

3/ Please confirm the date of any official advertisement, posting, or information provided to the public relating to the planned road closure. Were any warning signs issued relating to the closure posted or advised.

4/ Please confirm the legal date when the Road Closure was issued.

5/ Please confirm if any fees were chargeable

6/ Please confirm that a traffic management plan was submitted.

7/ Please provide a copy of the planned traffic diversions. Please provide a copy of the planned installation of road closure information & signs as required under NRSWA, Safety at Streetworks , Signs for temporary road closures
(ref. Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2016

8/ Please confirm that Carmarthenshire County Council or its appointed agents DID NOT provided any traffic management signs or installations. Could you confirm who did the T&M.

Yours faithfully,

P A Gadd

FOIA, Carmarthenshire County Council

Diolch am eich gohebiaeth.

Os ydych yn gwneud cais am wybodaeth, bydd y cyfnodau isod yn berthnasol:

Deddf Rhyddid Gwybodaeth 2000 (DRhG) a’r Rheoliadau Gwybodaeth
Amgylcheddol 2004 (RhGA) - 20 diwrnod gwaith, oni bai bod angen eglurhad
arnom ynghylch y wybodaeth yr ydych yn gofyn amdano. 

O ganlyniad i’r sefyllfa bresennol gyda'r firws COVID-19 a'r effaith ar
rai o wasanaethau'r Cyngor, gall fod angen i flaenoriaethu ceisiadau DRhG
a RhGA, yn dibynnu ar y wybodaeth y gofynnir amdani. Ymddiheurwn am hyn.

Deddf Diogelu Data 2018 a’r GDPR (ceisiadau am ddata personol) – un mis ar
ôl derbyn y cais.

Os bydd angen eglurhad arnom ar unrhyw agwedd o’ch cais, byddwn yn
cysylltu â chi mor gynted ag y bo modd.

 

 

Tîm Llywodraethu Gwybodaeth
Cyngor Sir Gaerfyrddin

 

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Dear Carmarthenshire County Council,

Hi, I understand this request is now overdue. Could you please provide an update please.

Yours faithfully,

P A GADD

Dear Carmarthenshire County Council,

Despite polite requests and a follow up prompt it appears you have failed to respond.

Also, you have not requested an extension within the twenty day period, or provided any reasons for delay.
Therefore, you have failed to comply under Section 10 of the FOIA. The FOIA states ‘must respond to requests promptly, and by the twentieth working day following date of receipt of the request‘

Unless I receive a full substantive response by the close of business on Monday 25th July 2022 I will have to make an official complaint to the ICO.

Because CCC have failed to respond to both the request & then polite prompting there seems no reason to ask for an internal review and I will therefore explain that to the ICO.

Yours faithfully,

P A GADD

FOIA, Carmarthenshire County Council

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Gadd,

 

Thank you for your request for information, which was received on 16^th
June 2022 and is being dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act
2000/Environmental Information Regulations.  Please accept our apologies
for the delay in providing this response.

 

We are still awaiting information regarding parts of your request,
however, at this stage, we can provide a partial response to the following
questions:

 

“An event took place in Carmarthen on Tuesday 1st January 2019. The area
was closed using the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 as Amended by the
Road Traffic (Temporary Restrictions Act) 1991 The area closed was as
follow:

 

Carmarthenshire County Council hereby gives notice that no person shall
cause any vehicle to proceed along that length of road known as Blue
Street, Dark Gate, Lammas Street, Morley Street and Mansel Street
Carmarthen, from a point 116 metres north east of its junction with Blue
Street roundabout, for a total distance of 558 metres in a north easterly
direction.”

 

“1. Please confirm the application date to Carmarthenshire County Council
for the road closure.”

 

The application date for this road closure was 28^th November 2018.

 

3. Please confirm the date of any official advertisement, posting, or
information provided to the public relating to the planned road closure.
Were any warning signs issued relating to the closure posted or advised.

 

We are advised that the Council does not advertise road closures of less
than 5 days.  It is the responsibility of the applicant to notify any
resident/business directly affected by the closure.

 

7. Please provide a copy of the planned traffic diversions. Please provide
a copy of the planned installation of road closure information & signs as
required under NRSWA, Safety at Streetworks, Signs for temporary road
closures (ref. Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2016

 

Please find attached a plan showing the road closed and the alternative
route.

 

We will respond to you on the remaining points as soon as possible and
once again, we are sorry for failing to respond within the required
timescale.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Tîm Llywodraethu Gwybodaeth

Gweithrediadau a Llywodraethu TG

Adran y Prif Weithredwr

Cyngor Sir Gaerfyrddin

 

Information Governance Team

ICT Operations & Governance

Chief Executive’s Department

Carmarthenshire County Council

 

Dear FOIA,
I have read the document you have sent and would make the following comments.

My request was for the 2019 New Years day event. Your reply confirms that the application was received for (2019) on the 28th November 2018 road.

However, the road closure plan you have supplied relates to 2017 . It is dated 27/11/2017 obviously it has nothing to do with the 28/11/2018 application which relates to the New Years Day Closure for 2019 ...as I requested. Therefore this is NOT the correct road closure plan .

So, could you please supply the plan that was submitted for the NYD closure for 2019 with the roads closed and alternative routes shown please.

Yours sincerely,

P A GADD

FOIA, Carmarthenshire County Council

2 Attachments

Dear Mr Gadd,

Thank you for your request for information, which was received on 16th June 2022 and has been dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). Please accept our apologies for the delay in providing this response.

Further to the partial response issued on 22nd July, please find below our revised and final response to your request.

"An event took place in Carmarthen on Tuesday 1st January 2019. The area was closed using the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 as Amended by the Road Traffic (Temporary Restrictions Act) 1991 The area closed was as follow:

'Carmarthenshire County Council hereby gives notice that no person shall cause any vehicle to proceed along that length of road known as Blue Street, Dark Gate, Lammas Street, Morley Street and Mansel Street Carmarthen, from a point 116 metres north east of its junction with Blue Street roundabout, for a total distance of 558 metres in a north easterly direction."

"1. Please confirm the application date to Carmarthenshire County Council for the road closure."

The application date was 27th November 2018.

"2. Please confirm who applied to Carmarthenshire County Council for the Road Closure. Please provide the actual road closure application document."

The road closure was applied for by the Carmarthenshire Hunt. A redacted copy of the application form is attached.

Please note that the name, address, position and contact telephone number of the applicant has been removed. The reasons for this are set out below.

Under Section 40 (2) of the FOIA, a public authority may refuse to release personal data if its disclosure would breach any of the principles set out in Article 5 of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GPDR).

The legal definition of personal data contained in the UK GDPR is any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person. An identifiable natural person means any individual who can be directly or indirectly by reference to a particular identifier. This definition would include a wide range of identifiers such as names, addresses, unique reference or identification numbers.

The first principle states:

"1. Personal data shall be: (a) processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject ('lawfulness, fairness and transparency')."

The term processing includes disclosure to third parties, and to be lawful this must be in accordance with one of the conditions set out in Article 6 of the UK GDPR. If the information falls within any of the special categories of (sensitive) personal data included in the UK GDPR, an additional condition found in Article 9 must also be met before it can be disclosed.

Disclosure of information under the FOIA has the effect of placing it in the public domain. We must therefore disregard who has asked for the information and consider whether it would breach the first UK GDPR principle by releasing it to the public at large.

In deciding whether disclosure would be lawful, we have considered the following factors.

a) Whether we have the consent of the individual(s) to disclose

We do not have consent to disclose the information in question.

b) Whether there are any legitimate interests that necessitate disclosure

Examples of legitimate interests are provided by the Information Commissioner's Office in its guidance on this subject.

. The general requirement for transparency in public life;
. Issues of interest to the wider public and where disclosure demonstrates accountability, such as in relation to the expenditure of public funds.

There are no such interests which require disclosure in this case.

In view of the above, we do not consider that there is any lawful basis to disclose the information and that as such, this would contravene the data protection principle referred to above. Section 40 (2) of the FOIA provides an absolute exemption where this is the case.

As we are refusing to provide the requested information, please consider this email as a formal notice of refusal under Section 17 of the FOIA.

"3. Please confirm the date of any official advertisement, posting, or information provided to the public relating to the planned road closure. Were any warning signs issued relating to the closure posted or advised."

The Council does not advertise road closures of less than 5 days. It is the responsibility of the applicant to notify any resident/business directly affected by the closure.

"4. Please confirm the legal date when the Road Closure was issued."

The Public Notice was issued on 31st December 2018.

"5. Please confirm if any fees were chargeable"

No fees were charged for the closure.

"6. Please confirm that a traffic management plan was submitted."

We are advised that such a plan would have been submitted.

"7. Please provide a copy of the planned traffic diversions. Please provide a copy of the planned installation of road closure information & signs as required under NRSWA, Safety at Streetworks, Signs for temporary road closures (ref. Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2016"

With regard to your query about the 2017 date shown on the Geodiscoverer/Ordnance Survey map, our Traffic Management team have confirmed that this is the correct plan and identifies the actual closure and alternative route for 1st January 2019.

Plans may be re-used from the previous years if the route and diversionary route remain the same. This was the case here.

"8. Please confirm that Carmarthenshire County Council or its appointed agents DID NOT provided any traffic management signs or installations. Could you confirm who did the T&M."

Our Highways division have confirmed that they have not provided any assistance for this particular event in the past.

Your right of appeal

If you are unhappy with the way in which your request has been handled, you can request a review by writing to:

The Head of Administration & Law
Carmarthenshire County Council
County Hall
Carmarthen
SA31 1JP

Email: [email address]

If you remain unhappy with the handling of your request or complaint, you have a right to appeal to the Information Commissioner at:

The Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Website: www.ico.gov.uk

There is no charge for making an appeal.

Yours sincerely

Tîm Llywodraethu Gwybodaeth
Gweithrediadau a Llywodraethu TG
Adran y Prif Weithredwr
Cyngor Sir Gaerfyrddin

Information Governance Team
ICT Operations & Governance
Chief Executive's Department
Carmarthenshire County Council

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Dear FOIA,
Thank you for your reply which is mostly complete. Except for answers 6 & 7.

6/ my question asked " Please confirm that a traffic management plan was submitted."

The reply suggested 'We are advised that such a plan would have been submitted'

This reply is incomplete it is just suggestion. It fails to confirm or deny a T & M plan was submitted. If you cannot produce a t &m plan please confirm you do not have one. If you do have one then please supply it.

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7/. Please provide a copy of the planned traffic diversions. Please provide a copy of the planned installation of road closure information & signs as required under NRSWA, Safety at Streetworks, Signs for temporary road closures (ref. Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2016"
YOUR REPLY STATED:
'With regard to your query about the 2017 date shown on the Geodiscoverer/Ordnance Survey map, our Traffic Management team have confirmed that this is the correct plan and identifies the actual closure and alternative route for 1st January 2019.

Plans may be re-used from the previous years if the route and diversionary route remain the same. This was the case here.

PLEASE CONFIRM THAT THE PLAN YOU SUPPLIED FROM 27/11/2017 WAS USED FOR THE 2019 ROAD CLOSURE LEGAL DOCUMENT AS YOU HAVE SUGGESTED IN THE RESPONSE. ANSWER YES or NO PLEASE

Yours sincerely,

P A GADD

FOIA, Carmarthenshire County Council

Dear Mr Gadd,

Thank you for your email. We will respond to your queries in the order they were presented.

"1. This reply is incomplete it is just suggestion. It fails to confirm or deny a T & M plan was submitted. If you cannot produce a t &m plan please confirm you do not have one. If you do have one then please supply it."

We apologise for the lack of clarity in this regard. Our Traffic Management team have confirmed that a Traffic Management plan was provided, however, we regret that it has not been possible to locate this.

"2. PLEASE CONFIRM THAT THE PLAN YOU SUPPLIED FROM 27/11/2017 WAS USED FOR THE 2019 ROAD CLOSURE LEGAL DOCUMENT AS YOU HAVE SUGGESTED IN THE RESPONSE. ANSWER YES or NO PLEASE"

Yes.

Yours sincerely

Tîm Llywodraethu Gwybodaeth
Gweithrediadau a Llywodraethu TG
Adran y Prif Weithredwr
Cyngor Sir Gaerfyrddin

Information Governance Team
ICT Operations & Governance
Chief Executive's Department
Carmarthenshire County Council

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Dear Carmarthenshire County Council,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Carmarthenshire County Council's handling of my FOI request 'Road Closure Information'.

Thank you for your reply. I am still unhappy with the response regarding traffic management plans.
I stated on 25th July 2022 -"This reply is incomplete it is just suggestion. It fails to confirm or deny a T & M plan was submitted. If you cannot produce a t &m plan please confirm you do not have one. If you do have one then please supply it."

However, the response of 2nd August 2022 in response confirms:
"We apologise for the lack of clarity in this regard. Our Traffic Management team have confirmed that a Traffic Management plan was provided, however, we regret that it has not been possible to locate this"

You had previously suggested that other plans related to the road closure area were used for later years. The road has been closed since 2018 on New Years Day and you can not supply any real documentation supporting the legal requirements for T & M plans.

I am surprised you have stated they 'remember' having a plan. Could you ask if they could provide T & M Plans for any of New Years Day Meetings since 2018 please. I still feel your answer fails to confirm you 'actually' have a T& M plan. It is simply 'we think we remember having one' this is not a confirmation.

I understand claims relating to personal injuries or liabilities could require the production of these plans.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/r...

Yours faithfully,

P A GADD

Robert Edgecombe, Carmarthenshire County Council

Dear Mr Gadd,

 

I write further to your above information request and in particular your
email of the 2^nd August in which you requested an internal review of the
Council’s handling of this matter.

 

I have been tasked with carrying out that review and  aim to conclude it
within 20 working days. Normally this would result in a target date of the
1^st September but, due to the August Bank Holiday and my having annual
leave booked later this month I would be grateful if you would agree to an
extension of time until the 9^th September.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Robert Edgecombe (Legal Services Manager)

Dear Robert Edgecombe,

Thank you .

Appreciate you have holiday booked ..have a good holiday.

No problem with a delay, just want a substantive answer.

Yours sincerely,

P A GADD

Robert Edgecombe, Carmarthenshire County Council

3 Attachments

Dear Mr. Gadd,

 

Further to previous correspondence, as I did not take all my leave last
week I was able to complete the review of your information request earlier
than anticipated. Please therefore find enclosed the formal response along
with some additional disclosure.

 

Regards

Robert Edgecombe