I very much doubt that the people employed to answer FOI requests are actually setting or influencing policy.
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Going by some of the weird and wonderful job titles weâve seen in the several thousand emails weâve been dealing with over the last six weeks, Iâd absolutely agree.
My point exactly 
Hi Rich @PingSpike
From the FOI request to Central Beds, the following response was given to your questions :-
âA1 - A2. We do not have any bylaws or policies specifically about drones, however our land
is classed as private property and we would expect anyone looking to enter our land to seek
our consent . Seeking consent : please email âŚâŚâ
Surely this would not apply to public spaces ? I.E. public footpaths, parks etc, as that would mean that anyone using these spaces would need to email central beds to request permission to walk on a public footpath and/or enter a public park etc. ? (Or is it me not understanding the rules properly ?) or are Central Beds Council expecting to be inundated with email requests.
Youâre exactly right Rob @Brigadier
To the point where you can stop reading anything immediately after this part:
We do not have any bylaws or policies specifically about drones
Thatâs pretty much all thatâs required to know
You would not believe some of the responses we got from LAs with no byelaw or policy, the amount of additional âthingsâ they added to their response in order to try and scare people off was unbelievable.
We might publish some of the more interesting responses here in due course 
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I was talking to someone from a local authority (a senior officer) who I know is âintoâ drones.
I showed him some footage I had taken in the city centre, and this is the conversation we had:
Him: Where did you get permission from
Me: Air Traffic Control (it is in a FRZ)
Him: No, I mean from the council
Me: I dont need permission from the council, the CAA own the airspace
Him: You need permission to take off from our land
Me: It was a public footpath, I dont need permission
Him: Oh yes you do
Me: Oh no I dont
Him: ⌠Iâm working on a system where you can use Altitude Angel to request permission, it will come to me, and I can then decide
At that point I made my excuses and walked awayâŚ
Its good to know he is focussing on the important things 
So, the council own public parks etc, Do they expect every member of the public to seek consent every time they wish to walk through the park ? I donât think so.
Some of these council officers are so far up their own arses itâs unbelievable that they got such a position in the first place. Might as well lock the park gates up 24/7 
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You could be on to something there⌠However most council employees prefer to read the Guardian newspaper, letâs hope they donât start reading the Daily Mail. 
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Some work been done here ! Well done and thank you !
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good to know whatâs important to councils when they are pleading poverty and what they see as in their ownership and need to defend
Iâm thinking about going out tonight and Iâm going to be walking into town, anybody know who I need to ask permission from at the council in addition to the boss at home?
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Is there any way for users to append a link to the local council website onto/into that map info? Specifically a link to any relevant published byelaws? Additional context to the FOI link is sometimes absolutely needed.
For Example, take Basingstoke & Dean Council FOI request where the response is pretty unintelligible. However, the council website has a list of byelaws (https://www.basingstoke.gov.uk/council-byelaws) that includes the byelaw for Pleasure Grounds, Public Walks and Open Spaces. Unfortunately, in that byelaw Basingstoke & Dean council specifically deny permission for TOAL and Control of drones across 229 listed green space areas and parks.
It would be useful to have this link, and other links like them) represented on your map for B/Stoke & Dean council.
Regards⌠JD
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I agree, some of the responses can be very hard to read.
The way the âWhat do they know?â web site formats the email responses we get doesnât always help either.
The Basingstoke one you mention wasnât too bad though:
Source: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/freedom_of_information_request_b_521#incoming-2591268
On the next round of these we might provide even deeper integration and manually type up their responses in to Drone Scene and probably list each one in a thread of its own on the forum too.
That would allow things to be updated easier as and when their regs change, itâd give people a place to discuss specific authority regulations and as you suggest @julesman101 itâd allow our members to provide additional details and more information.
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âNoâ x 370 wonât take long. 
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I own a piece of land that has a public footpath running through it (and a river/watercourse). Whilst I own the land under the footpath, the Local Authority owns the footpath. The Public can walk along the footpath without trespassing on my land. In theory no such rights exist for dogs with their owners or the action of flying drones. I can shoot dogs that worry my livestock on my smallholding, though Iâm not too sure about drone operators disturbing my livestock. 
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Most landowners donât worry about people flying drones from a public footpath over their land, the drone isnât likely to cause any damage.
Most of the times when I fly a drone there is no landowner around and no-one will know that I have enjoyed a flight over their land. When I have asked landowners for permission to fly from public footpaths on their land permission has always been granted.
I wouldnât use a drone to worry livestock, but I have flown it high above fields to check if cattle are present before walking through the field. I find that cattle and sheep take no notice at all of a small drone a few hundred feet above them.
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That reflects my experience.
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Well done guys a lot of work has gone into this thank you 
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Thanks from me too.
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Liverpool finally completed.
Thatâs it, all done, the whole of the UK has now responded to their FOI requests and they are all available in Drone Scene
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Yes but they only last for 3 years and have to be renewed. That is the time to get a concerted objection to their implementation, but you only have a very short window in which to do so. Up to individuals who are aware of them to do their bit, not leave it to others.