Drones and motorcycles on nature areas: threat, harm and risk




Jet ant
It was a splendid day, and eventually, I found the ancient oak tree with its processing jet ants. However, I felt exhausted after three hours of engine noise from the direction of  Great Hollands field - the one closest to Jubilee Way car park- made worse by the fact that I was in Great Meadow field - its polar opposite. Eventually the noise found me, as young motorcyclists - looking more like they should be on a beach- began tearing up and down the newly mown pathways, outstripping the noise of the drones being flown.


 
Attilla is allowed



allowed? 
 
 No-one has landowner permission to fly drones on Tolworth Court Farm. I know this, as I checked with a council officer who said, 'no-one has permission to fly drones on Tolworth Court Farm'.  In fact, despite being named Atilla, the only vehicles allowed on TCF are the grasscutters.


 
Motorcycles not allowed 
 
 After three hours of noise and 25 degrees of sun, it was becoming difficult to ignore the fracas and so I rang 101. The police response said, "if your calling about anti-social behaviour please hold the line, otherwise go to our website.' So I hung up and decided to engage myself with the four endearing young men who warned me to mind my own business or I could be facing a Crocodile Dundee situation.



 
 
Leaving the nature reserve coincided with the timely arrival of the Surrey Police  at the county boundary. But the anti-social behaviour that I was attempting to report hadn't put me at Risk, Threat or Harm, which was a requirement to trigger investigation.

Nature is everything, it gives us all we need (food, water, air, soil) it is the basis of our economy (food, commodities, minerals etc.) keeps us sane (beauty and healing space) we cannot report its abuse, unless we have been under threat, harm or risk.
TCF needs a ranger



However, with a recent escalation in criminal activity  the Metropolitan police have been told by the community, that  Tolworth Court Farm is something they would like to see prioritised, and they have been working with their counterparts in the Epsom and Ewell teams so hopefully we can get greater coordination. 

Drones, I have since discovered through the helpful Police Constable Ben Styles from  the Tolworth Safer Neighbourhoods Scheme, technically speaking, should have a camera. It is a little difficult to unpick the current situation with the flying club, but it may be that they do have permission.

There are two sets of regulations which apply to the use of drones in the UK, whether they are being used for commercial or recreational purposes:
 
The UK’s aviation regulations which are regulated by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA)
The UK’s data protection regulations are enforced by the Information Commissioners Office (ICO).

You can find details about the requirements to fly a drone commercially from the CAA at
www.caa.co.uk/Commercial-industry/Aircraft/Unmanned-aircraft/Unmanned-Aircraft/

For more information about drone and data protection, visit the ICO’s website at
https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/drones/





Comments

Post a Comment

Please share your thoughts

Most viewed

Heritage Trees part 2: street trees.

Image
  Oaks and maples Cambridge Gardens 2019   Street trees can often be the most beautiful objects in our streets. They are important to their communities as well as having environmental benefits. They are a living history in our landscape and can have particular connections. They may be fragments of a previous landscape incorporated into a modern street scene, such as the oaks at Cambridge Gardens once  part of the Duke of Cambridge's estate.  A great read with information on how to research street trees is a  History of Street Trees by Dr. M. Johnston.  London plane trees CRE 1976 Beech tree, Chesterton Terrace 1976 Studies show that the difference in local tree cover can reflect the various socio-economic groups. In Victorian times middle class areas were planted with many street trees or had higher quality front gardens than working class districts; now referred to as 'green equity'. It can be demonstrated by looking at old photos of the seven...
Read more

Fishing the Hogsmill

Image
Fly-fishing the Hogsmill   It is interesting to see the river from a different perspective: the Hogsmill is popular with anglers at this time of year; although it is unusual to see someone fly- fishing. A chub has just been caught on bread and it looks a good size. Trout are sometimes seen in the Hogsmill and can sit in the weir notch by the school. Our own Richard Jefferies in his book 'Nature Near London'  remarked on the Hogsmill trout as far up as Tolworth Hall Bridge (now the A240). chub    This fish was carefully unhooked and orientated in the swim where it soon finds it way - probably to the next father and son - sitting further upstream. These anglers have caught the 'ghost' koi within the last two weeks and appear to be the second successful pair to catch the pond-escapee in the last few days. Ghost koi are a British invention. They were produced by accident in the early 80’s when a farmer allowed a mirror carp and a koi to spawn together. The offspri...
Read more

Seething Wells: they've done it again

Image
The last day of May, I went to see if I could find the black redstart that had been widely reported, no luck but it will turn up again on one of the old buildings. The lush vegetation was looking beautiful between the Filter Beds at Seething Wells. I made a note of the breeding birds: goldfinches twinkling away, blue tits gathering food, sand martins flying over the FB's (only two this year unfortunately) moorhens and some scruffy little coot chicks entangled in the algal blooms.   Proud parents were showing off their four Canada chicks; they can cover a lot of ground in a short space of time they were soon feeding on water pepper and bistort gleaned from  the ziggerat-sided basins. A song thrush sang from the wharf alongside greenfinches as well as the seasonal chiff chaff; although this year all numbers are down, reflecting not only the topsy-turvy Spring but also the continued tumble in insect numbers (even seed eating birds are dependent on insects to feed their youn...
Read more