By Andrew Cantwell
Casey City Council’s well-intentioned but ill-conceived drone local-law will be dumped from the books.
The local-law was brought into effect at the beginning of 2018 – and flew straight into controversy, stepping into CASA regulated space and earning the ire of recreational drone flyers across Melbourne.
It had been adopted in an effort to protect people’s privacy from backyard-launched quadcopters equipped with cameras -and to deter deliberate harassment from ex-partners, stalkers and others with a less than noble purpose – by preventing people launching a drone from private property within Casey.
A report by council officers in February 2018 indicated the local-law may never be enforcable.
By June that year, a meeting had been held with amateur and professional drone groups; and by September the acting CEO had granted sweeping exemptions to anyone affected by the local-law, the council acknowledged the local-law had failed in its intent and the decision was made to remove the provision from local laws.
At Tuesday night’s council meeting, another matter requiring a change to the council’s Community Local Law 2018 allowed them to also quietly drop the drone restrictions.
The local-law amendments will now go on public display and any submissions will be considered by the council before the revised local-law can be approved.
