The Yorkshire Post says: State surveillance fear as North Yorkshire launches £2,000 drone to enforce planning rules

Given that the authority’s jurisdiction covers in excess of 3,000 miles, the council does need to utilise new technology wherever possible as part of its wider financial management.

And, given the funding pressures which are even more pronounced in the more remote countryside communities, there is a case for drones being used to monitor planning applications; identify dry stone walls in need of repair; help to combat flytipping or pinpoint the precise location of potholes which are posing a road safety hazard.

This much is accepted. The challenge, as the council sets out its justification for spending £2,000 on such an aircraft, is reassuring residents – and especially those families who value the quiet seclusion of North Yorkshire – that it is not pursuing ‘state surveillance’.

Residents have a right know how their privacy will be safeguarded and the protocols that will be in place regarding the storage or deletion of mobile footage that is taken of land, and properties, which are not subject to official inquiries.

They will need reassuring about the training that staff will receive – and the level of authorisation that will be required by officials to obtain evidence gathered 
by drones.

And they will need satisfying that such drones will not compromise safety – even more so after flights at Gatwick Airport were brought to a standstill last December.

Given the number of councils monitoring North Yorkshire’s use of such technology, it is in the authority’s best interests if it is open and transparent from the outset about its intentions – and the safeguards that it is putting in place to protect the privacy of residents.