Related Articles
A councillor queried whether such a scheme would be possible after a trial was found to be “limited to unsuccessful” due to weather.
But an Argyll and Bute Council official responded that various types of drones were being trialled, while a report said there is a “strong use case” for drone deliveries in parts of the area.
The discussion took place at a meeting of the council’s environment, development and infrastructure committee on Thursday, March 20.
In a report ahead of the meeting, executive director Kirsty Flanagan said: “Argyll and Bute Council has now undertaken trials for school meal deliveries, worked with Regulatory Services in trials for food and water samples, worked with external agencies Royal Mail and NHS in deliveries of mail and hospital drugs/equipment. This was undertaken between Islay and Jura.
“A critical aspect of the report involves outlining the benefits and impacts drone services can bring to remote island communities and seeing how regulations can help enhance the expansion of drone networks within these regions.”
Councillor Tommy MacPherson (Independent, South Kintyre) asked: “It was brought up by a resident that the HSCP (health and social care partnership) manager for Kintyre and Islay mentioned that there was a drone trial.
“But they advised that the conditions were to be no wind, minimal rain and good visibility. The results were limited to unsuccessful, but it was a useful trial.
“It remains on the radar with our planning team, so hopefully we will be able to revisit the idea. Are the inclement weather issues because of the size of the drone we are using?”
Fergus Murray, the council’s head of economic growth, responded: “It is an evolving technology and there are various types of drones being trialled. Some are probably not designed to deal with inclement weather and for those reasons, this is what the trial is about.
“It is a bit like the debate between VHS and Betamax – what is the right market? There have been successful trials and some have been flying in quite high winds.
“But they are restricted by regulations. This is being worked on by the UK Government and there are trials going on across the country.
“There is commercial activity in Orkney, so if it can happen there it can happen in the west coast of Scotland.”
Ms Flanagan had also said in the report: “There is a strong use case for drone-enabled deliveries which would provide a significant timesaving for end users. Increased payload weight and further distances are keen to be explored to establish the feasibility of expanded operations.
“Temperature control is a key component for a handful of end users; this would need to be further explored prior to integrating with day-to-day operations.”
