Companies should be required to get planning permission for drone bases, Fingal councillors say

At a recent Blanchardstown area committee meeting, Labour Councillor John Walsh pressed on with attempts to get a definitive answer to the question of whether drone delivery companies like Manna need planning permission for their drone bases.

He says they do need permission. And he wants it on the record that the council agrees, he said at the meeting on 1 May. 

“There seems to be some level of confusion about whether planning permission is needed to set up drone landing pads or bases, and I'm just surprised by that,” Walsh said. “I don't see any reason for confusion to arise.” 

Walsh referred to the precedents of Manna’s three drone bases so far in Dublin 15. 

There’s one operating at Blanchardstown Shopping Centre, and the property owner got planning permission for that one.

But Manna was setting up another in Clonsilla and the property owner hadn’t got planning for that – and the council ordered that drone base removed. 

Now Manna’s operating a drone base at Junction 6, and the council has sent a letter to the property owner saying they’d heard about some “unauthorised development”.

Specifically, “The installation of infrastructure for the purpose of launching and landing unmanned aerial vehicles without the benefit of planning permission.”

At the meeting on 1 May, Walsh said, “There’s, I suppose, not so much a gap in the regulation of drones – more, regulation of drones is non-existent.” 

Although the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) regulates the drones when they are flying, there’s nothing in either Fingal’s development plan, Dublin City Council’s development plan saying where drone bases can and cannot be installed.

“And there's no sign that regulation at a national level is coming forward from the government,” Walsh said. 

To the meeting, Walsh brought a motion saying: “That the Chief Executive ensures that the requirements for planning permission for drone bases in this Local Electoral Area are strictly enforced and that no drone bases are set up without planning permission.” 

At the meeting, he said: “It’s important for residents to know, for the business, and for the credibility of the planning system, so we’re clear a loophole is not developing in terms of planning.”

A number of councillors chimed in agreeing that the planning rules need to be clarified.

Solidarity Party Councillor John Burtchaell said it seemed like both the government and the IAA were brushing aside concerns.

“Essentially, the body language is clear … this is going to happen. And, you know, suck it up, essentially,” Burtchaell said.

But drone deliveries are a significant change to the environment, he said, so this needs to be a much bigger debate.

“And of course, the  planning enforcement is part of that,” he said. “But we can't just accept this being imposed on us.”

Labour Party Councillor Mary McCamley also said drones need to stay on the agenda.

She said that when drones first started flying, “It came as a surprise when these were in our skies – before anybody ever knew about them.” 

McCamley said she tried to get something into the development plan to stipulate rules around drones, and she was told no.

She said she was told, “Because the development plan is for, you know, ground rather than air.”

“But I mean, we have a number of items in the development plan for the airport. So I can't understand why we can't put something into the development plan on drones."

She said she hopes they do get rules on drone bases into the development plans in the future. 

Fingal’s current development plan runs from 2023 to 2029. Dublin City Council’s runs from 2022 to 2028. 

Sinn Féin Councillor Angela Donnelly, said she sees a place for drone food delivery, but she said that legislation governing it just hasn’t caught up.

And “there doesn't seem to be any political will to catch up, it just seems all very laissez faire altogether in terms of how they're regulated”, Donnelly said.

“The IAA may disagree with me, but that's certainly the way it seems to the residents here in Dublin 15,” she said.

Fianna Fáil Councillor John-Kingsley Onwumereh, who chairs the committee, said it’s about setting a precedent before new companies pop up using the same model and sidestep oversight.

“How many of these companies are we going to have, and how many drones are we eventually going to have flying in our airspace before we think, ‘Oh, we need to do something about this?’” Onwumereh asked.

In response to Walsh’s motion, council administrative officer Fearghal McSweeney said he could not say whether drone bases need planning permission or not. “As I am not a planner, I am unable to answer the question,” he said.  

In the end, the councillors agreed Walsh’s motion, “that no drone bases are set up without planning permission”.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.