Well at least someone is approving new LARS units, because the trend has been the other way. I agree that NATS should be looking at a service to provide LARS around the London TMA releasing Thames Radar to concentrate on London City and Biggin inbounds and providing Heathrow, Gatwick and especially Luton and Stansted with a safety net, to counter act the numerous zone infringers ( and of course free up the Airport approach controllers to concentrate on utilising those precious runway slots).
If operators knew how much of a problem traffic outside for example, Stansted zone can pose to the safety of their aircraft, especially on '05' operations, I'm sure that they would agree to some of their Nav. fees going to help provide a LARS service, as described. The western CTA at Stansted has a base of 1500' and I have it on good authority that sometimes on a daily basis VFR aircraft pass through at 2000' plus, without talking to any ATC unit. If a good London LARS service was available to pilots,to assist them around the London Zones, then hopefully an incident or worse may be avoided.What will it take?