(Missed the February 2025 updates? Take a look here!)
New Feature
Back in 2024, Grey Arrows Drone Club submitted a Freedom of Information request to every local authority in the UK, asking if they had any byelaws or policies relating to the recreational use of drones.
Not only have we done it again for 2026, but this time we’ve asked additional questions and we’ve mapped the results of every single council directly in to Drone Scene 
Over four million data points make up and define the exact boundaries of each local authority.
Our 2026 round of FOI requests asked three very specific questions of each council:
Do you have any byelaws that are used to regulate, restrict, or prohibit the recreational use of drones from land under your jurisdiction? If yes, please provide:
a) The dates of each byelaw.
b) A digital copy of the byelaws or a direct link to the specific document or webpage where the information can be accessed.
Do you have any Public Space Protection Orders (PSPOs) that are used to regulate, restrict, or prohibit the recreational use of drones from land under your jurisdiction? If yes, please provide:
a) The dates of each PSPO.
b) The locations and areas these PSPOs cover.
c) A digital copy of the PSPOs or a direct link to the specific document or webpage where the information can be accessed.
Do you have any policies that are used to regulate, restrict, or prohibit the recreational use of drones from land under your jurisdiction? If yes, please provide:
a) The dates of each policy.
b) A digital copy of the policies or a direct link to the specific document or webpage where the information can be accessed.
As you’ll see, we’ve ask for the details of anything a council can use to regulate, restrict, or prohibit the recreational use of drones from their land – including any PSPOs.
A Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) is a legal power which can be used by councils to restrict certain activities in public places where those activities have, or are likely to have, a detrimental effect on the quality of life of people in the area. They’re similar to an Antisocial Behaviour Order. These PSPOs can impose conditions on how a public space is used, or prohibit specific activities altogether, and are enforceable by fixed penalty notices or prosecution – they’re important.
More information about each type of restriction can be found on the “about” page of Drone Scene at https://dronescene.co.uk/about#Byelaws
The results of our 2024 round of FOI requests were linked in to Drone Scene, which meant when you wanted to find out about a particular council you had to spend some time reading though our full request, and all the various replies we received from each council. Quite a time consuming task, but the answers were available to you nonetheless.
However, in our 2026 round, we have brought all the responses directly in to Drone Scene, so now Drone Scene knows the response 
This means you no longer need to wade through countless FOI requests and responses, you no longer need to wade through some often very outdated byelaw documents trying to decipher them, we’ve done it all for you
You can now instantly see if a local authority has a byelaw, a PSPO or a policy that they can use to restrict you flying from their land.
Each council boundary is now displayed in a different colour to quickly visualise any blockers that might be in place.
The council boundary will be green if the council has confirmed they have no byelaws, PSPOs or policies used to regulate, restrict or prohibit the recreational use of drones from land under their jurisdiction.
The boundary will be yellow if the council has a policy or PSPO that may restrict drone take-off or landing from land they own or manage.
It will be red if a byelaw exists that restricts drone operations in one or more locations.
And in the short term, it will be pink if the council has not yet confirmed their status in response to our 2026 Freedom of Information request.
Furthermore, clicking on the council boundary will open a popup modal which contains a very simple checklist of the status of each council. Green ticks or red crosses give you a very quick indication of the status, along with a short summary of any specific or important details.
This table will build a historic picture in future successive years.
Also within each detailed popup is a link to view the entire FOI public record which contains every email we sent, every response, every legal document – providing you with full and complete transparency.
If you’re currently a Bronze member, you can upgrade to unlock full Drone Scene access, including council data, competitions, and additional member benefits:
When reviewing FOI responses, it’s not uncommon to encounter vague or ambiguous replies, where councils present documents in a way that suggests they carry more regulatory weight than they actually do. We’ve worked through these responses carefully to ensure the outcome presented in Drone Scene is clear and accurate.
New Feature
In the past, whenever you use the map on Drone Scene in full screen mode, you lost visibility of the search features.
This meant that when you wanted to search for something you needed to exit full screen map mode, perform your search, then switch back to full screen map mode.
We’ve now added a 
search icon to the full screen map.
This allows you to search for locations, council byelaws, local club members, towns, postcodes and more – all without leaving the full screen map mode.
New Feature
We’ve added a new Council search option to the existing search panel.
Simply enter a partial council name to see a list of possible results.
Then click on the search result to be taken to the council boundary:
You can then click in the boundary to see if that local authority has any Byelaws, Public Space Protection Orders (PSPOs) or Policies used to regulate, restrict or prohibit the recreational use of drones from land under their jurisdiction.
New Feature
– Requested by @NDangel
The search panel used to default to Locations.
When you change the search type to anything else, such as Councils, Drone Scene will now remember your preference and will default to it on your next visit.
Similarly, if you perform a search for Town, Postcode, POl, Coordinates then that last used search type will be remembered too.
One less click
UI / UX Change
If searching for a Location and then changing the search type to Town, Drone Scene will now automatically place the cursor back in to the search box for you.
Not specifically requested by @NDangel but it ties in with his requests for less search clicks
Bug Fix
• Fixed a minor issue whereby some members could still register their interest in a [CANCELLED] meetup.
I want to fly here forum replies– Raised by @CutThroatJake
When you add a location to your personal map of places you want to fly there is an option to let other club members know by posting your intention on the discussion forum.
If there are no useful markers on a location (such as parking, toal, etc) and you add the location to your list then Drone Scene would add an extra line of text on to your forum reply, asking if anyone else could add some useful markers.
As @CutThroatJake rightly pointed out, that wasn’t his original intention.
We’ve changed this now so that if you share your intention to fly at a location, that’s all the forum post will say, just that you want to fly there and you’ve added it to your list – nothing more 
Beta Tester Programme
We run a Drone Scene Beta Tester Programme and if you’re a Silver or Gold Member you may be eligible to join.
What do you get out of joining the Beta Tester Programme?
What do we need in return?
If this is something you might be interested in helping us with please get in touch and let us know why you think you’d be a great addition to the group 
Thank you
As ever, please keep those feature requests coming. Drone Scene is only as good as your feedback!
We also hope you find this level of release notes / details useful
But don’t forget!
In order to use all the features of Drone Scene you need to be a Silver or Gold Member of Grey Arrows Drone Club.
Membership is available from as little as £1.34 per month
FYI…
Of the nearly 400 local authorities we submitted FOI requests to, around 50 have either not yet fully responded or have provided only a partial response.
They are now outside their legal 20-working-day deadline, so if you’re not seeing any 2026 results for your local council, please try again in a few days. We’ll be chasing the remaining responses this week 
Epic! 
On a side note, if A(s)BO us pronounced “azbo”, is PSPO pronounced “pisspo”? 
That’s how I pronounce it
Just goes to show you lot go above and beyond 
If you don’t want to search and just want to click around on the map to have a looksee, don’t forget you can turn the council option on and off with this icon on the bottom right hand side:
Hi, I have Drone Assist on my phone, but I can’t find Drone Scene anywhere in the PlayStore. Where would I get Drone Scene from please?
Davy just go to this link —
Its a web site not a full download app - you can save it to your homescreen and it will show like an app on your device and use it from there.
Thanks Pete @LE60LAD
And if you need some more info @Davyboy check out this dedicated thread on the subject:
And the tutorial video:
I pronounce it “pisspoo”, because there’s one near me, outside the local wetherspoons, that prohibits urinating and/or defecating in the street
These changes have now gone global thanks to this article !
