If you take a paranoid, small minded idiot with a poor education, bully them and then give a job where they are answerable to nobody then you have described the average security clown at an airport. After receiving abuse for several years from everyone around them because they lack social skills, promote them to a level where they can stipulate what can and cannot go on around their airports. Then is it any surprise that a spotter cannot get a direct view of an aircraft let alone close to one - "for security reasons". How stupid can you get? Their belief is that terrorists will flock to these places and shoot down aircraft with MANPAD's. Couple that with the average spotter's on-site spend on a day out and you'll see why there are so few spotting spaces. Short-sighted management greed means that opportunities for passengers to see aircraft will also be limited - after all, we can't have these unpleasant people looking at aircraft instead of shopping, can we?
PM