Gosafe (formerly Arrive Alive) and Lack of Freedom of Information

postscript: Gosafe have written to me and released full data for Nov 2010.


(sent to First Minister Carwyn Jones)
Since I have them looking at the site at the moment perhaps its time to go through their non record of compliance with the Freedom of Information Act. This is off the top of my head I'm not wasting much time on this unaccountable quango. When I started this epic journey I was a little wet behind the ears one learns with experience. This is all to do with traffic speed recordings.

1. Asked for data recorded over 10 days before a meeting arranged by Cllr David Williams with Flintshire Highways ( April 2007). Refused for operational reasons. Objected it the took 6 months to review and they said no again.

2. Asked for all the data held for North Wales. Refused said it would take too long to do.

3. Asked for data recorded June 2008. Refused again. Eventually after Cllr Arnold Woolley stepped in I was given a partial password protected version in pdf which was given to me in a format in which it is not possible interrogate. Found a password hack online and loaded data into Excel. I found that 34% of vehicles were still breaking 30 mph. Our CBM told PCC it was 5%. If I didn't have data I would not have known which suits my cllrs very well. I was told that 2007 data was "lost".

4. In Dec 2010 an instrument was put across Chester Rd to measure traffic. I applied to FCC for a copy of the data only to be told that they did not have a copy, Gosafe did the survey. Flintshire representative for Gosafe works for Flintshire County Council. Go figure.

5. I again applied to Gosafe for the three sets of export data in full with original files. This again was denied through grounds of vexatiousness. It seems it's vexatious to persist when information is not given. This will be going to the Information Commissioner for a decision.

6. Asked Gosafe to say whether they  take the top 15% of speeders off data before using statistics to deal with the rest. They use something called the 85th percentile when dealing with road traffic. This is apparently industry standard. I wanted to know if the data is made to look better by taking the top 15 % of speeders out of the data before processing. Guess what, its been refused.

My question is has anyone ever got data which affects Welsh communities out of Gosafe. I think not.
One would have thought proper councillors would be gagging to get any data on traffic going through their community. You may think again, they are all part of the conspiracy.

Anyway Cllrs Cindy Hinds and David Williams are talking to Flintshire Highways at present.

Finally it is possible using FCC equipment to count how many lorries go through our village each day. Today I reckon over 40 lorries ( many the same on multiple trips ) came through the village even though we have a bypass.

keywords: Geraint Evans Data Manager - Rheolwr Data, Jim Moore, All Wales Safety Partnership, AWSP, Welsh Assembly Government.