Is flying over SSSIs illegal?

The person making the call and wasting their time? :crossed_fingers: :pray:

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Indeed. We could start a competition, compose your own phone call:

ā€œHello, which service? You’d better send them all as I think I saw a drone, and I’m sure it’s illegal. You read nothing but the trouble they cause in the newspapers, crashing into airliners and everything. Thank you, pleased to do my bit for society. My name? Errrā€¦ā€

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lol that’s typical of the broads authority , they are beyond all doubt the most useless bunch of idiots ever , widely hated by the locals and totally incompetent , all they want to do and all they are interested in is getting National park status for the broads so they can cream in the profits and ban boats from the broads , saving themselves a fortune on maintaining the navigation and moorings work then they could just sit back and enjoy the extra money available for them to claim on expenses. So the fact their drone policy is pants is nothing unusual lol .

Just to add to the complexity re. permission to TOAL on SSI there is an SSI near me that has the designated status due to originally being an old quarry that has geological importance and created some important plants. No mention has been made of wildlife such as birds and animals within the classification. In addition there is a public footpath running through the middle of it. So what prevents me legally TOAL my Mini 2 from the footpath and overflying this SSI at a time when very few people are using the footpath?

I’d double check that as I’m sure the Broads does already have national park status.

https://www.nationalparks.uk/

When was it illegal to fly over an SSSI

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Indeed, I was flying directly over one yesterday. :sunglasses:

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My question relates to TOAL not specifically the airspace above the SSI. Many SSI’s are not public spaces but also are not classed as private land. But in this instance there is a public footpath. The question relates to does a public footpath across an SSI carry the same rights as a public footpath across private land?

I’m not sure of the legal answer to be honest. But I’d go fly it. If someone, in authority, asks you to leave then smile and say ā€œsure mate, no problemā€. No laws broken.
But surely a public footpath is a public footpath, regardless of the type of land?

You have to take into consideration all of the damage and erosion that will be caused by your 249g drone taking off from the public footpath :thinking:

IANAL, but the wording is quite specific:

Use of vehicles or craft likely to damage or disturb features of interest.ā€

who without reasonable excuse—
(a)intentionally or recklessly destroys or damages

So long as we are not being an idiot when flying (e.g. we fly from the roadside and then overfly an SSSI) then as far as I can see, it is NOT ā€œlikelyā€ to damage the SSSI, and so long as we do not deliberately fly to upset the local wildlife (e.g. buzzing a nest at 5 ft), I can’t see how we could be in trouble. I usually find myself flying at least 100 ft in the air to get a nice perspective anyway. Not sure how that can upset the wildlife.

Great site by the way! I’m new here, and this legal section has been a goldmine of resources.

I wanted to go and visit the east coast and wanted to know if it would be legal to fly there - seems it is (usual rules of the countryside apply).

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I’d take off from the public footpath. Worst that could happen is the landowner asks you to land and not fly there ( assuming they were close enough to see a sub 250gm drone and see the operator)

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I appreciate I may be rather late to the party, but, my wife and I have a caravan in the Filey area overlooking the sea. It is sited above some 250 feet of rock cliffs. When you are on the top, you can’t see the beach and when you are on the beach, you can’t see the top. Because of this I wanted to fly my drone over the cliffs to see what was what.

The cliffs are designated as an SSSI. Having read posts on various other drone sites, I contacted Natural England for permission to fly over the area.

The response I received was;

"Thank you for your email regarding drone flying at Gristhorpe Bay and Red Cliff SSSI.

Drone flying at this site does not need Natural England’s permission as it is not included in the list of operations which require consent at Gristhorpe Bay and Red Cliff. You can check this using the government guidance on applying for consent under the ā€˜Check if you need consent’ section: Sites of special scientific interest: managing your land - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

However, you may want to consider obtaining permission from the landowner before carrying out any activities."

I had previously secured permission from the landowner to take off and land.

Because of the beach’s inaccessibility due to the cliffs, the rocks below are used by 2 colonies of seals. These do not form any part of the site’s SSSI designation. While preparing to fly a chap approaches and we have a discussion. He turns out to be a warden checking on the number and condition of the seals. He was from the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, and other than offering advise as to minimum distance, he had absolutely no objection to me using my drone to film the seals.

In my very limited experience, I’ve found that if a non-combative approach is taken when speaking with people, people are usually very supportive.

As an aside, there are a number of other, more local, SSSI’s to where I live that I would like to film, none of which have been designated because of the wildlife, as long as flying a drone is not detailed in the list of ā€˜Operations likely to damage the special interest’ I believe I should be ok to go.

I would of course welcome your thoughts and corrections where necessary.

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You do not need permission from a land owner to overfly their land, unless it is a prison or other restrictions apply etc.

You may need permission to take off and land.

As long as you do not endanger wildlife, there should be no issue and in any event this would come under other legislation and would apply whether you are flying a drone or marching with as a one man band playing the 1812 overture.

The problem is if you keep asking, you will rapidly find someone who says no, you are not allowed.

Enjoy your drone and don’t be an idiot. Have fun :slight_smile:

And if you do decide to go marching as a one man band playing the 1812 overture, we want photos :joy:

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@Lobster don’t forget that as a member of Grey Arrows you have access to the SSSI data layer on Drone Scene :smiley:

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And wear a WWF T-shirt…

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I’m with you Lobster. I know that place reasonably well, have brought our touring caravan to the Country Park,and have flone my drone there too.

St Mary’s Lighthouse at Whitley Bay is very similar, in the sense that there is an SSSI around it but that deals with three species of ground nesting bird; it does not mention the colony of Grey Seals that like to chill out there on the rocks.

There are a few ā€˜No Drone’ signs about plus volunteer wardens are about, asking people not to try and get close to the seals, which is fair enough. I like to natter with them, ask about nesting season, issues with the seals being spooked by people on foot, any issues with drone use.

It’s very handy to know what can be an offence over an SSSI - Mystique describes it very well above - and if you know where the borders of it are, then you avoid entering it if you want.