Glad to see that orange is really the same sort of murky brown that the rest of us live with.
The reality is that the accountants dont see benefits that arent readily identifiable as pounds and pence. You're call for a reasonable staff travel policy is just another staff cost as far as they're concerned.
My employer went through similar convulsions following mass resignations in the mid 90's. Wasnt until someone gave the finance people a figure for increased training costs that a scheduling agreement appeared.
Pity about your rosters. Would have been interested in joining you but worked a 6/3 multi sector pattern in a previous life, added 10 years to me.