Quite staggered to see that so many drone users aren’t registering in 2023 – 53% according to the Opinium research for the CAA. This is despite it being a legal requirement to fly a drone. The awareness of that has taken a sharp drop it seems since 2021.
Registration isn’t a chaw and it doesn’t take long and helps everybody. We would encourage people to register their drones.
Some interesting insights from the Geeksvana discussion of the latest Drone Awareness Tracker report with Sean Hickey & Graham Degg:
Awareness of the height restriction of flying a drone has increased amongst drone users, and is now at the highest level since research started 8 years ago.
There is less clarity over the requirements of drone tests and registration for drone owners. Large proportions of users believe drone tests and registration are just for larger drones, and there is little knowledge of what Flyer IDs and Operator IDs are. More education and communication around this is needed.
The number of drone users registered continues to drop, including those who have registered in the last 12 months. Barriers to registration are a lack of awareness of requirement, as well as not seeing any benefit in doing so.
Motivators for registration would be if the police started issuing fines, as well as if users were granted access to fly in more places. News on drones is also welcome and there is interest in receiving this from the CAA.
The biggest growth areas for commercial drone use is considered to be in deliveries and travel, with the general public expecting both services to continue to grow over the next 20 years.
David Walker has been in the land surveying game since 1987. He qualified as a Land Surveyor and Cartographer, and then as an Engineering Surveyor. He has spent his 30+ year surveying career working for local, regional and national surveying companies. Most recently spending nearly 14 years working for one of the most successful planning consultancies in England as their Surveyor and IT Manager.
Since 1999 David has been an elected local government councillor at Parish, Town, District and County levels. He has stood for election in every set of local government elections since 1995. During his time he has served & chaired planning committees at every level. He was an Education portfolio holder during his time on Shropshire County Council.
In 2022 David won the annual Lib Dem Leader’s award for exemplary leadership skills while working or volunteering for the Party. In David’s case, the Party wished to highlight his central role, leading “the transformation of the North Shropshire Liberal Democrats from a local party with very few activists and Council candidates, to become a serious force in Shropshire’s politics… We simply could not have won [the North Shropshire by-election] without him.”
David is now the Planning portfolio holder on Shropshire Council after winning a seat on the authority for the first time in May 2025.
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