Lon. Not sure as I wasn't there. But the solution used gave the least disruption to the surrounding units. i.e. Assume Clacton is closed all night but then traffic could be routed through it on a purely tactical basis I guess on the back of a call from LACC or LACC doing the vectoring on contact. The last thing Maastricht want is to have to call LACC to see if the right 2 staff are there or more importantly traffic running late being refused access to the airspace because one of them is on a SRATCOH break.
Just for the record long sleeps are a thing of the past.
We have 3 staff to man 2 positions with a maximum time in position of 2 hours. That equates to 2 hours in position and 1 hour on a break-all night, both nights. The exceptions are the West end who still have 4 for 2 and Lakes who have the same to accommodate the Oceanic traffic depending on where the tracks are. They are able to do 2 hours on 2 off if the traffic allows.