A six-month trial allowing commercial drone flights between the Fawley and the Isle of Wight has has moved a step closer, after the Island's council cleared the project for take off.
The firm Inteliports has struck an agreement to use the long stay car park at Mornington Road, Cowes as a launch and landing sight.
The purpose of the project is to create a drone corridor to the mainland, improving the Island community's access to goods and decarbonising Island logistics.
Inteliports, one of the UK's leading drone operators, will operate six flights a day each way, during the daytime only, the council said.
When plans were unveiled back at a stakeholder event in April, those behind it said it could be a 'game changer'.
Concerns were raised about the impact it could have on wildlife and the environment though, especially with the drone site being next to Mornington Woods.
Confirming permission has been granted for the company to use the car park, a council spokesperson said: "Local ecologists have been engaged prior to starting testing and have found no significant impact to wildlife in granting this trial.
"To further mitigate any potential issue, monitoring of protected species has been insisted and will be undertaken throughout the trial."
The stakeholder event in April heard how a drone would be launched from a distribution hub in Fawley, 400ft in the air, to Cowes.
Waiting to receive 'missions' would be a 20ft shipping container based at the Mornington Road car park.
David Park, chief of strategy for Inteliports, told the Echo's sister title the County Press the project was about being "innovative" in an environmentally-friendly way.
He said there is currently a huge demand for same day deliveries, but that comes with more vans on the road, which isn't a good thing for the environment.
"How do we stop the number of vans on roads doubling?", he said.
"Our mission is to build a scalable service that can integrate this net zero project in a commercial manner."
The trial is expected to take flight from August 7 to February 2.
During this period, the entire Mornington Road car park will be shut.
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