Do you care about LARS?

[TC_LTN]

Spangly,

I assume you are an understandably disgruntled Farnborough ATCO or perhaps someone who receives the fine service they provide and has been 'wound up' by a Farnborough ATCO?

In either case I think you are, at best, scandal mongering and at worst inciting unnecessary concern amongst the GA community.

NATS provide a LARS in the Farnborough area not through the goodness of their heart but for sound commercial reasons. As the ATS service provider operating rapidly increasing IFR traffic levels into and out of an airfield with no more protection than an ATZ it is obviously in it's interest to do whatever it can to provide a 'known traffic environment' in the 'gap' between the base of controlled airspace and the runway. Despite the fact that the remuneration NATS receive for providing that LARS service would hardly fund one ATCO leave alone the staff actually needed to carry out the task, it is deemed necessary in order to provide an acceptable level of service to it's paying customers i.e. IFR operators into and out of Farnborough through Class G airspace. While, the intensity of the operation at Farnborough may not have been recognised in the current pay negotiations, for which I have every sympathy, it surely has no relevance to the continued provision of the service unless you are suggesting some form of industrial action in support of your grievance?

IMHO, the threat to the LARS service in the Farnborough area will come with the establishment of controlled airspace for the protection of IFR traffic in and out of Farnborough. If that time should come and I am sure you would agree needs to be addressed sooner rather than later, then I suspect the need for NATS to continue to offer a LARS service outside that airspace will cease since it is no longer commercially viable with the current level of LARS funding.

Spangly, I re-iterated I have every sympathy as an ex-LARS and continuing ATSOCA controller myself with your plight BUT I would suggest your grievance is just that YOUR grievance with NATS management and/or Prospect rather than inciting the willing recipients of the fine service provided by Farnborough, into supporting your cause under false pretences.