Filming a Village Fete for the Parish Council
The parish council asks you to fly your C1 drone at a village fete to take promotional photos for its website and newsletter. You are not paid, but the council will cover your battery costs. The fete includes a children's fancy-dress parade, a beer tent and a public road. You plan to fly at 40 m AGL over the green, keeping 20 m from the crowd. Your drone records 4K video to an SD card and has a live feed to your phone. A parent asks whether their child will be in the pictures. The council says ‘everyone is fine with it’ but has no signage. Your third-party liability policy covers recreational flights up to 5 kg; the policy excludes ‘commercial use’.
1. Is this flight ‘commercial’ for insurance and regulatory purposes? Explain the reasoning and what you should check.
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The label is not decided by whether money changes hands. The council covering battery costs and using the images to promote its website and newsletter points toward a business/community purpose, even if you are not paid a fee. That matters because your policy excludes ‘commercial use’; if the insurer treats this as commercial, you may have no third-party cover.
Check the policy wording and ask the insurer in writing, describing the facts: no fee, expenses covered, images used by a public body for promotion. Also confirm the national requirement for third-party liability insurance for your aircraft and operation, and whether the Open category flight is permitted on your A2 CofC/C1 combination. Do not rely on the council's assurance; insurance is your responsibility.
2. What data protection issues arise from filming the fete, and what practical steps would make the flight more compliant?
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The footage will contain personal data-identifiable adults and children-and children need particular care. You need a lawful basis (for example legitimate interests or consent where appropriate), transparency, and data minimisation. The council, as the body using the images, may be the data controller, so its privacy notice and signage matter.
Practical steps: put up clear signs and make an announcement; avoid close-ups and the beer tent; do not film identifiable children without parental consent; keep the camera high and wide; avoid filming into private gardens or the public road; store the SD card securely; delete unused footage; publish only wide shots or blurred images. If a parent objects, respect the objection and avoid that child. ‘Everyone is fine with it’ is not valid consent, especially for children.
3. The parent objects to their child being filmed. What should you do, and does the council's blanket assurance change it?
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Stop filming that child and move the aircraft away from the family. If identifiable footage of the child has already been captured, delete it where practicable and record the objection. The council's blanket assurance does not override the parent's objection: consent must be specific and informed, and a public body cannot consent on behalf of a parent for a child's image.
Also check the flight profile: a fete crowd is a crowd, so you should not be overflying it in A1; keep the drone away from the densest area and do not use height as a substitute for consent. The safe and compliant response is to prioritise the objection, minimise the data, and explain what you will do with the images.