A most interesting thread this one.
Interestingly, MACC has existed, in one form another, for 30 years come the end of January 2005 when the old Preston ATCC and the Preston Air Traffic Control Radar Unit closed. During that time it has actually grown from being a mere "Sub Centre" of West Drayton to a considerable operation extending into the Upper Airspace etc. It seems that MACC has been very useful to NATS as it has shifted various sectors around in order to assist with getting Swanwick on-line etc.
The idea of closing MACC and transferring its functions is certainly not new. Several years ago NATS came up with the TWO centre strategy. Technically, there could be just one for the whole UK but there is considerable force in the "don't have all your eggs in one basket" thinking. No doubt, the second centre has to be in Scotland for entirely political reasons. Such reasons are totally unconnected with the provision of ATC though it is interesting to note that some of the NATS Senior Management were Scottish at the time the 2 centre strategy evolved. However this may be, there is certainly no good business sense in maintaining 3 ACCs in the U.K. and it has to be recognised that the entire European strategy is to reduce considerably the number of ACCs from 40 odd to a mere handful.
With the greatest respect to some contributors, what has happened or will happen in Australia does not seem particularly relevant. The MACC staff are faced with either loss of jobs (which seems to apply to ATSAs mainly) or a transfer further north. Hopefully, there will be some ATSA jobs but without knowing the detail it is not possible to say. ATCO jobs appear to be OK.
The saddest thing to appear on this thread is the lack of interest being apparently shown by management in getting the staff more in favour of this major change in their lives. If this lack of interest is true then it is high time the NATS management woke up and addressed this issue properly. Also, it will not help the management cause if the MACC staff see this move as a "take-over" rather than a "merger." There is a world of difference between the two. Currently, the 2 ACCs do operate ATC rather differently and it is obvious that this needs to be addressed as part of the issue.
Similarly, the MACC staff are going to have to recognise the hard business / European reality and begin to positively address the move by getting properly involved and seeking to get the best out of this that they can.
Happy New Year - and I really hope that you can start to get this mess sorted!!