Hi all,
I’ve been looking at a place to go flying near family. After looking for bylaws for the area I’m not sure whether this would be considered a bylaw. No UAV policy
Also it apparently prevents overflight on there land. Would this be allowed as isn’t the CAA in charge of the air not the parish/local authority.
Obvious points: it’s for recreational purposes and I have liability cover with the drone/ model aircraft club I am with.
Hopefully I have made my question clear
As you probably know they can’t stop that.
Good luck, seems a nice spot
Edit* and it’s 3 years out of date
I am guessing they can ask you not to take off from Parish owned land like the National Trust do, but Jackie Weaver and the Parish Council have no authority over the air and cant stop over flys or stop you taking off from your garden ( if legal due to drone size / normal rules A2CofC etc etc).
Nothing very close airport or NOTAM wise. I guess as long as you dont go out of your way to draw attention / annoyance, then you wont end up on the village Facerant pages 
I guessed as much with the over flight and it would be either A1 (mini 2) or a A2 (Phantom 3 or 4). In all fairness I took my P3 up over Christmas and noting happened then but I guess that everyone is more concerned with there family than some lone man with a drone.
I was hoping there policy/Bylaw/script was like Basingstoke’s where there wording was ‘Model Aircraft’ so the defence for that is a drone is not a model aircraft (that worked for me last time anyway)
Yea I am not sure that’s worth the paper it’s written on.
Out-of-date and pretty much unenforceable. And clearly not a bye-law.
The most they can do is ask you to move on if you are standing on any land that they actually own. And do they even own any, or is it the property of the main local authority for the area?
That’s a good point, parish Councils don’t tend to have enforcement powers would likely be the lower teir local authority for the area it is in or the higher teir for the county it is in and in some circumstances the local constabulary.
The key point is that if it is not a byelaw, only a policy, the only possible enforcement route is for the landowner to declare the drone pilot a trespasser, and ask them to leave. They don’t need any enforcement powers, but they must be the landowner or their authorised agent. They can use reasonable force if someone refuses to leave. They can’t issue any fines or penalties, there’s no prosecution, and the police will only be interested if it turns into a confrontation.
So my personal advice would be that if your flight is otherwise legal, fly from the land, and if you are asked to move on, do so politely.
This is the direct excerpt from there website
“ The Parish Council have direct responsibility for public open spaces under their ownership, such as the Recreation Ground, the Cemetery, Swelling Hill Pond, Station Gardens, Oak Green parade, the green at Lymington Bottom, the wildlife areas surrounding Badger Close and Kingswood Copse”
But if I’m understanding this correctly I could take off from the side of the dirt track that is (as far as I know) owned by Hampshire Highways (Hampshire council) and fly over there land.
The way I understand it is that direct responsibility and legal responsibility are two completely different things. Parish councils can’t apply for or grant byelaws so anything they do try to enforce are policies of their own making and a policy is superseded and overridden by legislation (in this instance the CAA Drone Code regulations) and is nothing more than what they wish, not what they can enforce and any byelaw has to be granted and enabled by the local governing district council. If there isn’t a byelaw in place granted by the local district council specifically banning the flying of drones for that specific area they have no power to say otherwise despite what their ‘policy’ may say. If they want drones banned from take off and landing (and flyover) from land within their parish they have to apply to the local district council for the relevant byelaw (Model Byelaw Set 2 Section 6) to be granted and enabled.
It says as much here Byelaw Legislation
By local council the legislation specifically refers to and means District Councils
I’m also of the opinion that they don’t ‘own’ the land. The state does. They are merely the custodians and administrators of local district and county council laws and regulations that come under their remit.
Most local parks and highways are owned by the relevant District or Borough Council, and you can be quite confident they can enforce their rights as landowners against trespassers. “The state” is not a landowning entity as such, it owns land through specific bodies such as Councils, Highways England, Crown Estate etc.
Parish Councils are legal entities capable of owning land: Four Marks PC, the initial subject of this thread, declared their land ownership back in 2015 here:
Cheers KV. The wording in the first document rather vague in my opinion, or I’m just being a tad dense Open space is obtained? Does that mean purchased, I assume it does. And when it says encourages the Parish Council to take it over surely that just means the maintenance, as that document says, not the ownership.
I’m still of the opinion that if Parish Councils want the legal power to ban or inhibit any kind of use on land they own or lease via a byelaw they have to apply to the District Council for one to be created and enabled. A policy has no standing in law, least that’s what I’ve always thought.
The second document clears up the ownership issue and I stand corrected. Thank you
Maybe the parish council would do better to put a sign up stating that it is their preference that drones not be flown from or over the land that they manage.
Appealing to the better nature of responsible drone pilots would be a nice alternative to warding off with dubious/contested claims of legal responsibility. Sadly there are, it’s apparent, many who are just looking for the legal right to fly and the local preference be damned.
Have a look at whatdotheyknow.com There’s a guy there who has sent FOI requests to most local authorities, although not Four Marks. You could copy & paste his request into a FOI request to 4 Marks and await a response.
Thanks guys for all the help. I’ll act in good faith and stop if they ask but as tried calling them to discuss it last week and no answer and there closed on Fridays 
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