I recently decided to join the hobby as I used to fly model aircraft as kid locally and wanted to take up a hobby that would get me outdoors a bit more again and gel nicely with me and my wifes favorite passtime, walking trails through the middle of nowhere.
Unfortunately after going through all the steps to be legally prepared it seems my local council have outright banned takeoff and landing, leaving it as a nice paperweight but little else. Luckily my landlord is a farmer and owns most of the village Iām in and is also a pilot so getting take off and landing permission from him is pretty much a given, he kinda talked me into getting one tbh.
What Iām stuck on though is what do Suffolk pilots do when theyāve exhausted the small zone they may be able to get legal permission to use? Or the pilots who donāt have the luck to even get any permission beyond their own land? It kind of appears that to use it I need to go to Norfolk or Cambridgeshire instead.
Have you seen our members map? (Click the burger-menu in the top right) You may find some pilots living near you. Feel free to add yourself to the members map too
Weāre a well established club with many knowledgeable members so itās very likely that any issues you come across will have been discussed here before. Our discussion forum has very powerful search features which should help you find what you need but if you get stuck you can post a new question in the #questions-and-answers category.
Looking for recommendations of places to fly? Check out our interactive map on Drone Scene - be sure to log in to gain access to the full suite of features and map layers:
And please feel free to add locations of your own too.
Please also take a moment to look at the Membership Levels section on our FAQ as weāre quite different to other clubs and youāll be eligible for some rather exclusive club discounts as your membership level increases
Thanks! Thatās going to be a lot of handy resources. Iām in West Suffolk which seems to be one of the strictest councils near me in regards to drones.
Iāll be sure to check out if theres other local members too and add myself to the list. Iāll give the search function a go too and hopefully find others whoāve ran into this issue.
Have a look at the Drone Scene function which allows you check which local councils have bye laws to restrict flying - click the question mark icon on the right then click on the area on the map where you wish to fly. This will highlight a council boundary - click within the boundary and it will take you a page that directs you to the council info regarding drones
Is it backed by an actual byelaw or is it just one of those āpoliciesā councils write up that have no value in law or otherwise beyond the weight of the paper itās written on?
Ill give that a good read. It may be half the issue im having working out which councils have laws that can be enforced. Maps certainly show me a number of NFZās to avoid locally of course but it does seem odd the council worded a takeoff and landing ban that doesnt show up on the maps they link to
Iāll be honest im not entirely sure if its byelaw or not for the west suffolk council. They do have a page for it that basically says no take off or landing but i should probably double check the local FOI request to be sure
Thereās the local authority tool for Dronescene but Iāve just checked and doesnāt look like west suffolk has had a request put in yet about byelaws.
If the council has a policy and doesnāt specifically cite byelaws that apply then they probably donāt have them though.
Yeah Iāve been using it today to get an idea of what surrounding councils have looser byelaws or no byelaws regarding UAVās. Its going to be very useful for sure.
I think the issue Iād ran into is that the councils own site says banned in open spaces basically but as others have said the FOI request was met with referral to the same section on their site. So it does kinda sound like its not actually byelaw, but rather something theyād like to enforce but havenāt written the legislation for. Ill probably go to other counties regardless for now until I can make sure my grasp on it all is solid.
Just still trying to wrap my head around all the varying rules I guess. I was aware of CAA laws of course but I wasnt ready for the amount of research it would require just to get a 20 minute flight in.
For public land where thereās no known byelaws I operate on the logic of āWould the council have any legal standing to tell me I need their permission to get my ham radio out here?ā and ANO 241.
Yeah thats probably the approach Iām gonna need to take to use it in my area. I guess provided thereās no byelaw the worst that is likely to happen is they ask me to call it quits. Iāve generally always been aware of CAA law thanks to having some experience in the past so should be no issue to stay within them, especially with a sub 250g drone.
Well I got some flight time in finally. Had a bit of a wait due to the weather too but was worth it. No issues but Iām sorta doing my best to keep to places where nobody is around. I did notice something on dronescene however. There is actually a listing for West Suffolk but you have to remove district from the search terms for it to show up.
In all honesty Iām not really sure if that qualifies as byelaw or more just a rule so if anyone could clarify would be appreciated. Iāve got permission to use a small bit of private land regardless now but would like to stay out of trouble when venturing out.
From what little time ive had in the sky so far Iām already hooked and kinda wish I had the spare cash to have gone for a mini 3 instead. But hey gotta start somewhere
The flying of drones, irrespective of size, is not permitted in any of our
parks or open spaces within this council.
The guidance set out by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) states that
droneās should not be flown within 150ft (50m) of people and property. The
majority of our parks and open spaces are open to the public at any time
and we are required to ensure that they are safe for all to use. This
information is displayed on our website and the link to that is here,
[2]Drones (westsuffolk.gov.uk)
Firstly, this is based on old drone rules which are no longer in force.
Secondly, this directly contradicts established case law, ie. Hall v. Beckenham Corporation. The judge explicitly said that local authorities are merely trustees of parks and cannot deny people to partake in lawful recreational activities without a byelaw. The case was about the flying of model aircraft so itās directly relevant.
Ahhh so more a matter of they can ask me to move along but I wouldnt be in breach of any actual law then. Thatās pretty much the reassurance I was hoping for.
So long as a member of the public behaves himself in the ordinary way, committing no criminal offence and observing the by-laws, the corporation cannot stop his doing what he likes in this recreation ground . . I think that the corporation are the trustees and guardians of the park, and that they are bound to admit to it any citizen who wishes to enter it within the times when it is open. I do not think that they can interfere with any person in the park unless he breaks the general law or one of their by-laws.
Well, I mean, they can. But theyāre acting unlawfully if they do.
