A policy is merely a set of principles to guide actions in order to achieve a goal. They are nothing more than that. Without specific legislation to back up a policy, such as The Wildlife & Countryside Act then it has no weight in the eyes of the law. All they can do is ask you to abide by it and you can quite rightly refuse.
The same argument has been made for private companies that want you to carry on wearing a mask on their property after Monday 19th. Tesco will have that policy and they will ask you to ware one. They have a policy that says so and they can enforce it by either refusing you access or removing you from the store but a council doesn’t have that option because the vast majority of their land has implicit public rights of access.
As I understand it the only way you can be removed from public land is if your drone flying can be proved or reasonably suspected to have broken one of the actual pieces of legislation that protects the general public, land and/or wildlife and it’s habitat.
Simply put, policy is not law and therefore there is always a choice in whether to abide by it or not. Personally, if there are no bylaws or other legal restraints in place on public land I will fly where I want when I want. (Drone Regs and common sense prevailing of course;) )
OK thanks for the responses, and I tend to understand, it is just comments such as found in the ‘Whats the point’ thread and also found in many other posts which which suggests to my mind, one is breaking the rules and one knows it.
You’re reading to much into things, you’re actively searching for reasons to prevent you from flying. Just check the air space using Drone Scene and follow the drone code. Avoid busy places, take off and land off the beaten track and you’ll be fine. If you’re challenged by anyone just apologise and move on. theres a windmill near me that has signs all over the place saying no drones so I just parked up in the lay by along side the boundary fence of the windmills field and took off from there. Nothing they can do about it. I kept my 50m distance from the windmill and got some great shots.
Any ways let’s stop this conversation here as to not drag this thread to far off topic.
Drone Scene and Good 2 Go are your best friends so happy flying don’t over think it just have fun
Ditto. I write SHE policies for the chemical company I work for.
I know I go off on one when it comes to peoples rights and standing up for them but there is also a very good argument for just apologising and walking away. The less the drone boat is rocked the less likely it is to sink.
If you could continue these discussion of legalities on the originating thread please, and we’ll keep this thread on the subject of Drone Scene features and announcements.
Now that sub 250gram aircraft have far fewer restrictions than heavier drones and now that A2 CofC, GVC and/or Article 16 Authorisations relax restrictions according to the weight of the drone is there any way to include areas on the Dronescene form to indicate what is being flow and what qualifcations the pilot has.
Or, indeed, is there any need for this information to help others who want to fly at the same location?
I thought about this for a few of my recent additions to DS, which were city centre locations so pretty much only suitable for Open A1 flights, although they could be flown with a GVC or PfCO Operational Authorisation. I decided against it because the regulations could change and then the advice could date quickly.
It may be better to pick it up in the comments thread after any post, although not everyone will read that.
OK, not everyone will bother to give details and regulations may change.
Each location, when opened, has the opening line Landowner permissions not required, required or not known.
How about an automatically added opening line saying something along the lines of
“It is your responsibility to check that your proposed flight is legal in regard to your aircraft, qualifications and any uninvolved persons who may be affected”
A random example why you cannot rely on DS locations. Just opened Youtube and it suggested I might want to watch a drone flight around Lands End. Checked Lands End on DS and it’s close enough to an airport that you shouldn’t fly. I also noticed on DS there’s a pin in the same airport zone, “Land owner permission requirements unknown”.
Always check, just because someone else has flown there, doesn’t mean you can (legally).
theres a windmill near me that has signs all over the place saying no drones so I just parked up in the lay by along side the boundary fence of the windmills field and took off from there. Nothing they can do about it. I kept my 50m distance from the windmill and got some great shots.
don’t over think it just have fun 
thank you.