Our latest attempt to find out the cost of policing Climate Camp has been delayed again.
Hundreds of campaigners spent a week in August occupying the Gogarburn grounds of the Royal Bank of Scotland's headquarters protesting against the bank's foreign investment in what they believed were environmentally damaging projects.
In August we asked Lothian and Borders Police (LBP) how much money it cost them to police the protest. The force rejected the first request, saying Operation Octave was still ongoing on 25 August.
We then submitted a date-specific request for the information, to try to ring-fence costs relating specifically to the Gogarburn demonstration, rather than any ongoing investigations or criminal cases.
However, this second attempt has also been delayed, with the police force saying it is unlikely to be collated within the statutory 20 working days.
Sarah Hughes-Jones, an information officer at LBP, said:
"Unfortunately, the information you have asked for (in terms of total costs and officers) is still being collated by the force and are not, as yet, fully known. Consequently, I am afraid, this information still falls under section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002: Information Not Held.
"It is unlikely that this information will be fully collated until the end of October (at the very earliest) and I would therefore suggest that you re-apply after that time."
The Help Me Investigate website has since had some updates on traffic logs relating to alleged spills of an oily substance on the A8. We have also updated them on the police's latest response.
We will continue to ask for a true breakdown of police spending on the protest and will share the results when we get them but in the meantime, if you have any further information please feel free to comment below or contact us by email edinburgh.local@guardian.co.uk.
