Originally Posted by
DanJaws
Gatwick is a bloody hard place to validate, so I’m sure they have many contingencies in mind!
Several people from Farnborough were posted there when it was still NATS and they came back with the definite impression that certain persons made it their business to make sure they didn't validate; hopefullly those persons are now gone.
Not to say some controllers at Gatwick (especially in the tower) in the NATS era weren't ace; I was inbound on a fam flight one day and when we were at 4 miles (the previous lander just vacating), they still managed to get 2 departures away before we were cleared to land.
Hopefully this skill has been carried over to ANS controllers.