Just another rooftop survey, or so it seemed, but we reckoned without the impenetrable bureaucracy of our local Highways department.

The client needed a roof inspection of a building in the town centre, which could have posed problems, but fortunately the street was mostly pedestrianised at that point with a large paved area which was ideal to launch a drone from. Anyone conversant with CAA procedures will know that take off and landing from such an area would require a cordon, spotters to ensure members of the public did not get in the way or were endangered in any way and, of course, the permission of the landowner.

Who is the landowner? Surely the local Borough Council, but it seems not. It turns out that all streets and roads are in the purview of the Highways Department, but not pavements, except in certain circumstances. When is a pavement not a pavement? It seems that a pedestrianised area of a street is still a road for the purposes of bureaucracy, requiring the full paraphernalia of traffic diversions (??) traffic lights, large plastic barriers etc., etc.

Common Sense?

All our attempts to appeal to common sense have fallen upon deaf ears so far. We have tried to point out that all we need is permission to launch a drone from a small corner of the pavement on a quiet Sunday morning and hover it above the building in question for about 30 minutes, but to no avail. After 6 weeks of being passed around from department to department we find ourselves back where we started, with a polite email from the Highways Department saying yes they appreciate our arguments, but we will still have to engage a ‘Recognised Traffic Management Company’ to apply for a licence to divert the traffic etc., etc.

Licence to print money?

The clue to all this, it seems to us, is in the word ‘licence’. ‘Licence’ is the new local government euphemism for squeezing taxpayers even harder for extra cash and a quick glance at the charges on the Highways Department website confirm that there is a large ‘licence’ cost attached to every stage of the process.

There is, however, a happy ending to this story. Having been given the local government run-around for so long and looking around for alternatives we finally contacted some neighbouring organisations and on the same day received a very polite email reply offering a neighbouring car park any working day, free of charge.

So, the only remaining problem now is resisting the temptation to tell the Highways Department where to shove their licence. Best not to though, as it probably involves a hefty fee!