Just another rooftop survey

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!

December 2021 – and still living with Covid

December 1st 2021, almost two years ago to the day when the Covid 19 pandemic first began to hit. Who would have thought we would still be trying to avoid a new variant breaking out and causing further lockdowns?

Without wanting to get into the politics of it, it has to be said that the crisis has crippled a lot of industries, some of whom will not recover, while others seem to be still content to carry on operating at half capacity and providing half a service.

The Land registry office, for instance, is currently taking between 6 and 8 months(!!) to respond to information and registration requests, something to bear in mind if you are considering moving house.

Back to normal?

From a beda:photo point of view, we have been trying to get back to normal for over a year now, but continue to be frustrated by the complete lack of co-operation from organisations like councils, local government, the Environment Agency and Highways Authorities. We are required to deal with all these agencies from time to time as part of what we do to get permission to fly drones and we are finding that many of them simply couldn’t care less about getting back to work.

The lack of meaningful response is still being put down to Covid related absenteeism, associated cuts in funding and (of course) difficulties they are experiencing in dealing with other departments and agencies.

In the small business sector (where we live) however, things couldn’t be more different. It is only thanks to the self employed and small businesses that the UK economy is recovering at all and the inescapable truth is that while the link between work and pay seems firmly established in the minds of this group, it is of only marginal interest to many others, a lot of whom seem to have developed a taste for furlough which they seem reluctant to let go.

Working from home

Working from home isn’t for everyone, particularly if you fly drones for a living, and there are only so many photos you can take of the family and the flowers in the garden (if you have a garden). In fact, at the height of lockdown the Civil Aviation Authority was forced to relax its competency rules as the majority of UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) operators were simply unable to put in enough flying hours to maintain currency.

Another unfortunate consequence of the pandemic is that significant numbers of companies have developed a liking for working from home, with very mixed consequences. Many employers are looking for a ‘property dividend’ and hoping to shed office overheads, while employees like the idea of wrapping work around their personal lives, which rarely works.

Working on your own imposes greater responsibilities and requires more self discipline than a supervised workplace and for professions which require you to make yourself available to customers this can prove a real challenge. Anyone who doubts the truth of that should try getting an appointment with a GP or a solicitor, two professions who appear to have no desire to go back to previous working practices.

Whatever the new year brings, beda:photo will be very much open for business and continuing to work for clients in the building trade, private customers and the marketing and property industries. We may not be doing much work in Australia, but nothing’s perfect.