When I looked in the SSSIs then I found that quite a few of them are about the flora, not the fauna. Special rare grasses especially.
We are very unlikely to cause problems for flora and so reading between the lines, I’m not sure the SSSI restriction applies in that case according to the DC.
Of course should the SSSI be about fauna then there’s a whole lot more of an issue. Just being there, never mind flying a drone, could disturb ground nesting birds, etc. I wouldn’t even go there if I knew about those, even less fly anything.
This is what I found. It’s often stated that people need Natural England’s permission (and the equivalent in the other nations) to fly over a SSSI. But if so, I’ve not found anything to back that up.
They can legally require the landowner to do various things, such as preventing people from flying model aircraft and drones, but the legal onus there is on the landowner, not on people using the land.
And they have draft model byelaws, but I’ve not yet found any case where they’ve actually been introduced.
Every time I’ve challenged people on their view that NE’s permission is required, they’ve never had an answer as to where the law requires it.
I think it’s in NE’s interest to muddy the waters here.