I have just noticed that to fly Lisvane & Llanishen Reservoir and Visitor Centre (north of Cardiff) you have to apply to Welsh Water via UTM Services at least 10 working days before, and there is a fee of £15 if it is a recreational flight or £30 for commercial flight.
I’ve not come across a fee like this before.
Greed?
Looking at the T&Cs:
If you cancel or withdraw your request after the final Approval has been issued, no refund will be made.
Does this mean when the weather says no, that your fee is just gone and you have to reapply?
Take off from public land (footpath etc), fly, tell them to stick their fee right up where the sun doesn’t shine.
Simple rule is never pay to fly
Throw them a FOI request to see if they have any Byelaws and Policies on Recreational Use of Drones
Looks like loads of TOAL points just outside the restriction zone too.
I have no intention to fly there; I just noticed it whilst looking at Cardiff for the weekend.
Lots of places try to charge, they’re hoping people just blindly pay because they might not know the rules. Theyre called greedy chancing bastards. As above, find a public space for TOAL and tell them to bite yer shite
I seem to remember that the CAA said nobody could charge you for permission to fly, might have changed tho’.
… I assume this is taken from the Altitude Angel app ?? Welsh Water own the lease to Lisvane & Llanishen Reservoir and Visitor Centre and their policy regarding drones is as follows - extract from their web site -
There is no mention of a charge for commercial or visitor photography. So I’m wondering is the £30/£15 charge an Altitude Angel fee for using their UTM service ?? The fees appear in the Altitude Angel Ts & Cs and I can’t find them anywhere else 
As far as I’m concerned, Welsh Water don’t own the airspace. Whilst they can obviously prevent anybody taking off from their land, only the CAA can prevent you from flying over their land Provided safety, privacy and air legislation have been satisfied I would fly there taking off from adjacent public land 
It’s the same £15/£30 for Elan Valley (Welsh Water as well)
I thought they could, but it had to be a “reasonable” amount and only if using their property? I could be very wrong though.
Still, i prefer to tell them about biting my shite.
I must use that next time, “Darren says, “bite my shite””, it’ll go down well in the Black Country 
Is that fee mentioned on the Welsh Water site Graeme or is just mentioned in the Altitude Angel Ts & Cs ??
If its Welsh Water do you have a link to where mentioned ??
I live close to the Elan Valley and regularly fly around the area. I’ve never been challenged and whose going to be policing the area anyway but even if I was I’d tell them to swivel. There are plenty of public roads from which to TOAL, they’re just trying it on and living in hope. It’s about time they spent the profits they make on dealing with their infrastructure rather than lining their own pockets with huge bonuses.
They can’t charge you to fly but as it is their land they can charge for TOAL on their property. As others have said just TOAL off-site. There is a public footpath that runs alongside.
@Edison there are plenty of other good places in and around Cardiff and much more interesting. Cardiff Bay, Pontcanna Fields to name a couple.
I have been to Cardiff many times, but never since I got my first drone. So I have a good idea of places I want to photograph. I was just checking if any were in restricted zones. Seems like I’m good to go with most of them but a couple appear to be in the prison restriction zone.
But anyway it’s not going to happen this weekend; I am going north to Caernarfon instead.
they can FO!!!
anyone who pays makes it worse for the rest of us, thin edge of the wedge…
That way, if they have not, it will push them to create one 
