The Air Navigation (Restriction of Flying) (Doncaster, South Yorkshire) Regulations 2026
The Air Navigation (Restriction of Flying) (Doncaster, South Yorkshire) Regulations 2026 establish a temporary restricted airspace near Doncaster to manage unmanned aircraft during a large public gathering.
The regulations prohibit the flight of any unmanned aircraft below 1,100 feet above mean sea level within a specified 0.7 nautical mile radius on 27 June 2026, between 09:30 and 15:00 UTC. These restrictions apply to all unmanned aircraft operators, except those who have obtained explicit permission from the South Yorkshire Police Drone Team.
Arguments For
The Secretary of State asserts that restrictions are necessary in the public interest because of an intended gathering of a large number of persons in the specified area.
The Civil Aviation Authority and the Department for Transport state that these restrictions are required for reasons of public safety and security.
The regulations provide a mechanism for authorized flight, allowing the South Yorkshire Police Drone Team to issue permissions for unmanned aircraft to operate within the restricted zone.
Arguments Against
Aviation stakeholders may argue that temporary flight restrictions impose localized constraints on commercial or recreational drone operators who are not part of the gathering.
Legal analysts might note that the regulations centralize control of the restricted airspace under a specific police unit (the South Yorkshire Police Drone Team), which may lack transparent criteria for granting or denying flight permissions to third parties.
Privacy or civil liberties groups might question whether such restrictions are utilized solely for safety or if they serve to limit independent aerial documentation of large public gatherings.
Citation and commencement
- These Regulations may be cited as the Air Navigation (Restriction of Flying) (Doncaster, South Yorkshire) Regulations 2026 and they come into force on 27th June 2026.
This section establishes the official name of the statutory instrument and sets the date of June 27, 2026, for when the rules become legally active. This ensures the restrictions are enforceable on the specific day the public gathering is scheduled to occur.
Interpretation
- The times referred to in regulation 3(1) are Co-ordinated Universal Time( b ).
This provision clarifies that all time references in the regulations use Co-ordinated Universal Time (UTC) rather than British Summer Time. This is a standard practice in aviation to prevent scheduling errors, noting that UTC is one hour behind local summer time.
Restricted airspace
- -(1) Subject to paragraph (2), during the period beginning with 0930 hours and ending with 1500 hours on 27th June 2026 no unmanned aircraft is to fly below 1,100 feet above mean sea level within the area bounded by a circle having a radius of 0.7 of a nautical mile which is centred at 533105N 0010715W.
(2) Paragraph (1) does not apply to any unmanned aircraft flying in accordance with a permission issued by the South Yorkshire Police Drone Team.
This section prohibits unmanned aircraft from flying within a circular zone of 0.7 nautical miles around the specified coordinates in Doncaster at altitudes below 1,100 feet.
The restriction is active for a five-and-a-half-hour window on June 27, 2026.
Subsection 2 creates an exception for aircraft that have received prior authorization from the South Yorkshire Police Drone Team.
This allows the police to manage and approve specific aerial activity, such as official filming or emergency services, within the restricted zone.
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