RTCs on A458 645/2025

FOI Reference: 645/2025

Request

The number of serious injury or fatal collisions that have occurred on the A458 between Welshpool and Llanfair Caereinion since 1st January 2020. In addition, any results obtained from traffic data surveys/analysis since this date.

Clarification received

Please inform me of the number of drivers who have been reported via a traffic offence report and the number issued with a conditional offer.

Response                        

Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 places two duties on public authorities. Unless exemptions apply, the first duty at Section 1(1) (a) is to confirm or deny whether the information specified in a request is held. The second duty at Section 1(1) (b) is to disclose information that has been confirmed as being held.

Where exemptions are relied upon Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires Dyfed Powys Police, when refusing to provide such information (because the information is exempt) to provide you the applicant with a notice which:   (a) states that fact, (b) specifies the exemption in question and (c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information you have requested. However, we are withholding the whole of the requested information since we consider that the Section 12(1) exemption the Cost of Compliance exceeds the Appropriate Limit applies to it.

Section 12 (1) – The cost of compliance exceeds the Appropriate Limit

Section 12(1) states: “…Section 1 (1) does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit.”

The cost of providing you with the information requested in respect of your request is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond i.e. the cost of locating and retrieving the information exceeds the “appropriate level” as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004. It is estimated that it would exceed 18 hours (i.e. minimum of 831 hours) to comply with this part of your request. The regulations can be located @ https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2004/3244

The Freedom of Information department has been advised that the information in respect oof your request is not held in an easily retrievable format. In light of this and in order to accurately obtain the information relative to your request for the time frame stipulated would involve Dyfed Powys Police accessing and manually reviewing 10,704 records.

The process outlined results in the below time estimate.

Since 1^st January 2020 to 25^th June 2025, there have been 1835 conditional offers issued.  In order to find out how many of those relate to the road specified above would involve manually reviewing each conditional offer.

The time estimate for conditional offers is 1835 x 3 minutes = 91.75 hours

The number of TOR’s issued for speeding on the A458 between 2020 - 12^th May 2023 are as follows:-

2020 – 12 TOR’s were issued for speeding on the A458

2021 – 13 TOR’s were issued for speeding on the A458

2022 – 17 TOR’s were issued for speeding on the A458

Up to 12^th May 2023 – 5 TOR’s were issued for speeding on the A458.

Please note:

The above figures are for cases where the officer has recorded the location as A458 Welshpool or A458 Llanfair Caereinion.  Unfortunately we are unable to confirm whether these occurred on the A458 between these two towns as this information is not recorded on the Traffic Offence Report submitted by the officer.

For the number of TOR’s issued after 12^th May 2023, would involve having to manually review each TOR to see if the offence relates to speeding at this specific location.  The time estimate for this element of the FOI request is:

13^th May 2023 – 31^st December 2023 – 3255 cases x 5 minutes = 271.2 hours

2024 – 4422 cases x 5 minutes = 368.5 hours

Up to 25/06/2025 – 1192 cases x 5 minutes = 99.3 hours

TOTAL = 739 hours

Time estimate to complete task = 739 hours

In accordance therefore with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a Refusal Notice for the Whole of this request under Section 17(5) A public authority which, in relation to any request for information, is relying on a claim that section 12 or section 14 applies must, within the time for complying with section 1(1), give the applicant a notice stating that fact.

You may wish to refine and resubmit your request so that it reduces the time shown above to fall within the 18 hours, should you require any further advice in relation to this matter please don’t hesitate to contact the Freedom of Information Unit. Please also be advised that should the request be refined, it does not remove the public authorities right to cite exemptions if relevant.

(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 11/07/2025)