And if anyone came up to me and asked me to stop legally flying my legal drone, I’d remind them that THEY are committing the offence by distracting a pilot while flying, so if they want to call the cops…bring it on.
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Endangering an aircraft, correct me if I’m wrong but maximum sentence is Life Imprisonment.
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Yes, I believe it is. I wouldn’t fancy sharing the showers in prison and some bloke asks me to pick up the soap just over confronting someone legally flying a drone!! But of course our self righteous person doing the confronting would be fully aware of the law??? and would like to see a prosecution or the law upheld. They don’t seem so keen when the boot is on the other foot.
Bending over, a boot would be the last thing I was worried about
@Boxcobra
From someone who lives in Bedfordshire, that’s great news Simon, thanks for sharing the info
Rob
I was going to suggest we carry a copy of the ANO and show it to the nosey gits… but it appears it now costs £34 a pop! 
Hi all, new member here from Bedford 
Just purchased a mini 2.
I wanted to go fly in Priory Park and there are still signs up that say “NO DRONES”.
It doesn’t say no drones with cameras, etc. I’m pretty sure that sign has been there for several years.
I’ve got my CAA flyer ID / operator ID… am I good to go fly in Priory Park?
Well here’s a good one.
Email from Bedford council this morning about my question of flying drones.
I asked, can I now fly my drone in the parks around town and stated that I had both an operator ID and a flyer ID. This is the reply I got back:
"
Dear Mr [redacted],
The council does not permit flying of drones in our parks unless it falls under one of these exemptions:
· The Police have been granted conditional permission by the Council to fly drones or UAVs from Council owned land in order to prevent and detect crime and maintain public safety.
· The Council will grant conditional permission to fly drones or UAVs from Council owned land for certain activities of a professional or commercial nature which will be purpose and time limited and must be covered by the appropriate public liability insurance.
· The Council will grant conditional permission to fly drones or UAVs from Council owned land in circumstances where they are being used for the purpose of risk reduction such as for health and safety purposes, highway and building survey work."
So it would appear the council are NOT allowing drone flights on their land.
Good choice they made copying & pasting the exemption rules.from their own document. Shame they didn’t include the rest of the doc which says go fly.
Ask them for a copy of the bylaw that forbids flights.
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Thanks Doodler,
I have done so. It seems odd then that they apparently don’t know their own rules yet copied and pasted a chunk of them.
They’re not making this very easy…
Send them a copy of their own pdf and ask if they’re sure they’re banned 
I raised an FOI with them previous to them announcing their new drone rules, their response was
" Bedford Borough Council only has byelaws for two parks Priory Country Park and Harrold Odell Country Park. None of our urban parks or greenspaces currently have byelaws.
As you are aware the byelaws for Priory Country Park are on our website while hard copies are also placed in the notices boards at both the above sites."
They are correct in respect of no drones within Priory County Park. The byelaw in place in PCP states no TOAL for aircraft within the park. I am yet to seek clarification on whether the byelaws are superseded by their new drone policy, but I suspect not, given that the byelaw is a legal instrument in place partly to protect wildlife. Though byelaws obviously don’t prevent or restrict overflight (within the guidelines of drone legislation, VLOS etc).
Note: this only applies to Bedford Borough Council, NOT Central Bedfordshire Council or Luton Borough Council
In order for them to prohibit flying using a byelaw, they have to have applied to the government for the relevant la to be issued. It’s no good them just saying it’s prohibited ‘cos we say so, and it’s on our website’ it has to have a specific law to go with it, which is expensive. I’d be tempted to ask them for a copy of the legislation they have with regards to prohibiting drones
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Yes, there are valid byelaws in place under created under Section 41 of Countryside Act (1968), said byelaws specifically prohibit TOAL of powered [electric motor] aircraft,
The first two are legislative and hold power in law. The third is merely a policy, a document setting out the principle course of actions to be undertaken by that council. A policy stating they don’t allow drone flights on any of their land doesn’t in itself hold water in a court of law. That policy must be backed up legislation such as a bylaw or PSPO specific to that area such as the Priory Park Bylaw you’ve linked to. Unless there is a bylaw in place specific for an area of land then all the policy sets out is their intention to ban drone flights on that land, not that they actually have. All councils publish a list of current bylaws they have enacted and all that are in the process of being enacted either on their websites or through FOI requests.
If your flying on a piece of their land and your confronted by someone saying its against their policy but it doesn’t have either a bylaw or PSPO in place and isn’t governed by any other form of legislation (wildlife, ASSI etc) then they cannot force you to stop. That’s the way I understand the regs anyway.
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Your reply is exactly why it’s worth checking upon these things. Signs and ‘it’s council policy’ don’t mean diddly unless backed by the proper legislation. Public space protection orders are also another tool used by councils to ban things, but they have to prove that there has been a number of complaints specifically regarding drone flying. A FOI request would reveal if they have any justification. The mind boggles at the section banning the molesting of any animal in the park!! Is molesting animals rife in Bedford? Lol. I would take exception to the word model aircraft in the order, drones and model aircraft are regarded as different according to various groups, even Bedfordshire council in their ‘policy’ list drones, and model aircraft as separate entities.
@Brian Totally agree, that’s why I submitted the FOI in the first place, I wanted to know where I stood legally in advance of any issues. I know not to TOAL in any of the byelaw restricted parks, but can fly with impunity (within Drone Code/Common courtesy/CAA restrictions) in other Beds Borough owned areas, and carry a copy of the council’s document just in case.
I can guess why they made the change to allow drones under CAA guidance, if they get any complaints from the general public, they can advise that person to contact the police if they believe any laws have been broken. That way it saves the Council time and money, in that they dont have to respond and track down any reported issue.
Makes sense to me, I wish more Councils would take the same approach.
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The policy statement is interesting because it basically says that if you are registered follow the drone code and weighs between 250g and 20kg and it’s non commercial, then ‘fill yer boots’ and fly.
Anything under 250g and the council will monitor things.