Does anyone know if there is any restriction on flying drones in Mote Park, Maidstone, Kent?
Thanks for your information.
Does anyone know if there is any restriction on flying drones in Mote Park, Maidstone, Kent?
Thanks for your information.
Thank you for the reply.
However, I just realised that I should have said that I have the Mini 2, so A1 category.
I know there are places in Mote Park that get very few people, not enough to constitute a crowd.
What the Drone Scene map, and NAT Drone Assist donât tell you is if there is any local by-law or prohibition about take off and landing drones in the park. All they tell you is that itâs a park.
More importantly, theyâll tell you if there are any airspace restrictions in the area you intend to fly in.
Which is kinda important to know
Sadly, until councils move away from 30 year old documents that they scanned in to PDF 10 years ago and occasionally put on their web site, no service provider can ever tell you that
Which is why Iâm asking the community on here.
I hoped that someone, with knowledge of Maidstone, may have looked into local by-laws and be able to give me a straight forward âYes, you can fly thereâ or âNo, you canâtâ answer.
Well, I went to Mote Park today and had a good look around the park entrance for any information about drone operations. I couldnât find any prohibition on their use so I proceeded to spend an enjoyable hour or so flying.
I also saw another UAV flying over the area I was flying in, though I couldnât see the pilot.
I guess that means there is no problem with local by-laws there.
often times in parks and things you can use google street view and see signs at the entrance to parks
Appreciate this is a late reply but I submitted an FOI request to Maidstone Borough Council who advises that (and provided) there are bylaws in place prohibiting the take off and landing of any powered model aircraft which includes drones from any of their parks other than a designated place in Mangravet Park. Iâm quite surprised by this. Has anyone come a dropper to this yet in Maidstone parks?
Hi @CitizenPhaid, it looks as though youâre quite new here
Why not nip over to the Introductions page, and say hello properly and tell us a bit about yourself.
Interesting that the following foi states they have no byelaws relating to drone flights
Interesting indeed. Iâll drop in the detail but they were quite specific. When able I will upload the files and link to the actual response.
Maidstone Borough Council
Freedom of Information Act Request
Ref: FOI/10608
Date: 19th December 2023
Request and Response
Obviously the point around Aircraft is irrelevant I know.
Aircraft
35. No person shall, except in case of emergency or with the consent of the Council, take
off from or land in the ground in an aircraft, helicopter, hang-glider or hot-air balloon.
Power-driven model aircraft
36. In byelaw 37 and 38:
âmodel aircraftâ means an aircraft which either weighs not more than 7 kilograms
without its fuel or is for the time being exempted (as a model aircraft) from the
provisions or the Air Navigation Order;
âpower drivenâ means driven by the combustion of petrol vapour or other combustible
vapour or other combustible substances or by one or more electric motors or by
compressed gas.
MAIDSTONE BOROUGH COUNCIL BYELAWS
PARKS AND OPEN SPACES
Page 10 of 20 19/12/23
37 No person shall fly any power-driven model aircraft in the pleasure ground except in
that part of the pleasure ground know as Mangravet Recreation Ground, which has,
by a notice conspicuously exhibited in such pleasure ground, been set apart by the
Council for the flying of power-driven model aircraft.
38. No person shall in the part of Mangravet Recreation Ground set apart by the Council
for the flying of power-driven model aircraft:-
(i) fly any power-driven model aircraft unless it is kept under effective control;
(ii) fly any power-driven model aircraft when other prearranged sporting activities
are taking place with in the ground and a notice to this effect is conspicuously
exhibited in the ground.
You got a link to this bye-law
So a bylaw exists but isnât on their website that someone could reasonably be expected to find? I wonder how well that would stand up in court.
I can tell you however that Iâve flown FPV in Mote Park with a group of friends flying under Article 16 Operational Authorisation well away from other park goers (near the model railway loop) and the park staff werenât bothered in the slightest. I presume the bylaw is only enforced if people donât abide by the âdonât be a dickâ life rule first.