An interesting take on the law from Oxfordshire County Council

I’ve seen no evidence they can actually prohibit TOAL under their byelaws though.

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Honestly mate I just wouldn’t bother engaging with them. Just fly it.

set up a gofundme to defend yourself in court if it comes to it. I’m sure the drone community will more than cover your fees & fines (Should you get any) to put this to bed once and for all.

Crowdjustice is a better option for that kind of situation where you’re challenging a byelaw or such. I’d absolutely be more than happy to support such a fundraiser though if the person involved were presenting a reasonable case and had engaged lawyers with the right competencies to take it on.

Question to OP though: Do you feel that the council have responded to your engagement reasonably, and represented the law and their legitimate interests reasonably in the situation? If no, do you understand why most of us just say don’t bother with councils?

PS: Don’t pay a fine you’re planning to challenge as the courts will deem it an admission of guilt and consider the matter settled.

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Should advise, therefore the bylaw doesn’t cover it, and thats from their barrister

Must admit I’ve skim read through a lot of these posts but as far as I and I believe actual law is concerned, a mechanically propelled vehicle is made, intended or adapted to carry persons, passengers and or goods so can’t see how the bye law they quote would cover a drone/UAV. Apologies if this has already been stated by others, like I said I skim read through the posts!

A few weeks ago I emailed our local council to highlight the fact that their site was out of date in regards to the latest CAA publication, whilst theirs were dated 2018.

Corby Borough Council was merged to form North Northamptonshire Council, I asked to be directed to their Bylaws regarding drone flying in the county, this is the reply I received back from the Principal Leisure Officer. Copy & Pasted

Hi Lance,

Thank you for your email.

The copy you have is probably the last one issued. Since the merger of all the Councils to North Northants Council the policy has not been updated. I don’t think there is anyone looking at updating the North Northants Byelaws so until that happens the ones in place are the old Corby Borough Council ones.

The only advice I have is that the Council would expect any Drone or model aircraft flyers to follow the latest regulations from CAA.

Kind Regards,

Julie

| Principal Leisure Officer

North Northamptonshire Council

Deene House, Corby, Northants NN17 1GD

T: 0300 126 3000 | DD: 01536 464043

Twitter: @NNorthantsC

Facebook: @NorthNorthants

Web: www.northnorthants.gov.uk

From: Lance Njoroge

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:point_up:

Common sense prevails lance

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And this is all that councils should be saying on the matter.

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:crossed_fingers: it remains that way…

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Why ask in the first place?

Never go anywhere near the local authority unless you have to.

Creates a red flag

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Drones are electrically propelled, not mechanical :man_facepalming: … unless I’ve overlooked the Cox Babybee 0.49cc motor tucked away behind the battery :man_shrugging:

TL;DR … they can f off.

Electrically propelled vehicle definition

electrically propelled vehicle means a vehicle in which the electrical motive power is derived from any electrical storage battery which is not connected to any source of power when the vehicle is in motion.

I’m taking my scooter then ;o)

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Mods or Rockers?

Before my time, preferred the Mod music, but more a big bike fan (although have had plenty of good times on a hairdryer)

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I dont see how any of that effects a drone or have i missed some thing?

I don’t want to hijack this thread but the topic is the same. Please move it to a separate thread if you think it should be.

I found a site where someone has done an FOI request to Woking Borough Council enquiring about flying drones, see: FOI request
In the attachment each of the common areas within the borough has its own document and the document has this clause:

In the case of the first one (Horsell Common) it is in the Fairoaks FRZ so only relevant if permission has been obtained to fly there anyway.

I am a total newbie and just finding out that the drone I bought (for photography purposes) is unwelcome at nearly every open space close to where I live(whereas I can walk around and take photos quite freely).

So questions:

  1. based on what I have read above I am entitled to fly my drone above these areas as long as I do not TOAL (including hand launching) from the area? without any fear of prosecution?

  2. assuming yes to the above, what would be the case if my drone experienced a failure and fell onto the land below? would I suddenly be liable to prosecution? would I be entitled to go and pick up my drone from where it fell and walk it off the site without fear of prosecution?

  3. is it worth the club members setting up our own crowdfunding initiative and getting a top solicitor to write up a legal response that we can print and carry with us when we fly, which outlines the legal position and explains why we are entitled to be flying as we are, that we can give to any police, auditor, ranger or Karen that might challenge what we are doing.

  4. I have seen mention of Chobham Common being a no fly zone. It falls within Surrey Heath Borough and on their website they say that drone flying is prohibited on any of their land. It has also been stated that Surrey wildlife Trust have a blanket ban on drone flying at their sites, although I can’t find anything on their website that mentions this. I have seen online that Natural England prohibits the flying of drones at any SSSI (Chobham Common is one) and that doing so will render you liable to prosecution - it seems dogs running amok in these sites are fine but drones flying overhead severely disturb the nature (I am fine with both dogs and drones). So where do you think we stand on this?

  5. @ianinlondon (whose YT stuff is superb btw) says on several occasions that flying above NT sites is OK as long as TOAL is not from their land. Again, what would the legal position be if the drone crashed onto their land while flying over it? ( I get that crashing is not the general idea) :slight_smile:

For all of the above it goes without saying that we follow the CAA regulations and the drone code to the letter and make sure our equipment is tip-top when we fly.

So what are your thoughts on my questions (now actually an essay, in fact) ?

Andy

The official line is to always respect byelaws but as I said earlier in the thread:

But that’s your risk to take and your judgement, I am not a lawyer and all that jazz.

If it crashes in the grounds - well that rarely happens if you’re competent and confident in your flying and fly it above treeline etc. but you shouldn’t be liable for prosecution for collecting it. If it did damage on the way down then there’s strict civil liability for surface damage from aircraft. Joining FPVUK for example will give you third party liability insurance for that.

Other than being fairly decent open space to practise, you’re rarely going to return and take photos of parks, they are the most boring places to fly and photograph, once you’re confidence is up, you’ll be taking photos of far more interesting places than parks.

Take the Birthday comp for example ;o)

I have just found a document, relating to bylaws in local parks.
It says that if you are convicted of offending against the bylaw, you can be fined up to £2

I’ll take my chances :wink: