The Wales Road Casualty Reduction Partnership

PO Box596

Oystermouth Road

Swansea

SA1 9HJ

Thursday March 31st, 2011

Dear Mr. Hughes,

I have now conducted a review of your Freedom of Information request dated 7th February 2011 which was deemed to be vexatious and therefore resulted in the information notbeing released to you.

I concur with Mr Evans’ view in hiscorrespondence dated 18th February 2011 that the request was a vexatious one and so uphold his decision. In response to some of the statements you made in your email requesting the review:

  • “Your steady refusal in hiding three sets of traffic speed data recorded in Chester Rd, Penyffordd between 2007 and 2010 comes as no surprise.”

It is my understanding that you have been shown full speed data for the pre-2010 surveys and have also had them released to you in redacted form by Flintshire County Council. GoSafe has a transparent policy to publishing the summary results of the surveys on our website and the summary for the 2010 survey in Penyffordd will be published with our next website update. However, I recognise that your request for the 2010 survey is a new one. Under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) the whole request you made isdeemed vexatious and we are not obliged to release the data to you, however I have attached it to this email in recognition that the information is releasable in general terms. I have sent it to you in the exact format we receive it, from the company we use to undertake the monitoring on our behalf.

  • “Your supposed traffic calmingservice in our road which should be "a cause for concern" non existent over the last year.”

The enforcement in Penyffordd had to be suspended due to a signage defect. GoSafe cannot enforce where the signage is not legal. This site defect has been resolved by Flintshire County Council (the Highway Authority have the responsibility for signage) and enforcement has recommenced at the site. The Analyst for the North Wales region will look at the speed survey details and identify key days and/or times for deployment within our operational enforcement hours in order to address the speeding issue. I would like to remind you that GoSafe is only one facet of Road Safety and the “3 E’s” of Education, Engineering and Enforcement.

  • “I would expect your review to take a little less than the 6 months you took for the last one I queried”.

This is the first review this office (the Management Office for GoSafe at City and County of Swansea) has undertaken at your request. The Information Commissioner has details on how to complain if statutory timescales are not involved and I would encourage you to do so if you believe the Freedom of Information Act has been breached.

  • “You remain as ever totallyunaccountable to those you are supposed to serve the public who pay your wages.”

We are regularly required to report to the Welsh Assembly Government on our performance – we must demonstrate our effectiveness in terms of Casualty Reduction and operational efficacy. Wherever possible, we publish our performance on our website – you can find our annual report for 2009 showing casualty figures there. The 2010 annual report is scheduled for compilation and release by the end of April and so I envisage it will be on the website in May 2011.

As previously mentioned, enforcement by the Partnership is only one aspect of Road Safety and we do so within the operational guidance of the Welsh Assembly Government which clearly outlines how we can select our sites based on the collision/casualty history and evidence of speeding. The guidance is available on our website at

The site at Penyffordd does not qualify as a“core site” under this guidance. GoSafe recognise the need to address speeding in communities and as such operate a “community concern” site selection policy where we take into account risk factors, including (but not exclusive to):

  • Collisions/Casualties (there is no minimum collision number required)
  • Evidence of speeding (85th percentile in excess of ACPO enforcement threshold)
  • Proximity to community buildings where there may be vulnerable road users/increased pedestrian activity – e.g. schools, hospitals

It is under this “community concern” scheme that Penyffordd receives enforcement. All of our community concern sites are reviewed annually, which includes receiving a further speed survey. If the site no longer meets the criteria at this point, enforcement will cease. The site can be reconsidered however after the has enforcement ceased if a new speed survey reveals a problem. I would also like to remind you that any enforcement by GoSafe does not preclude any enforcement by the Police.

I hope the answers to the above pointsgo some way to demonstrate that we have an open approach to releasing data. I would ask that you consider carefully the basis upon which your request was made vexatious and look at it as advice for addressing any future correspondence with GoSafe.

If, you remain dissatisfied with the handling of your request and appeal, you have a right to appeal to the Information Commissioner at:

The Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

There is also further information available regarding complaints at:

Yours Sincerely,

Teresa Healy

Senior Analyst and Business Manager

Wales Road Casualty Reduction Partnership