NLJ :I always knew what the dimensions of the TRA were and never actually had a discussion with Wartion ATC on the matter. You must have been listening in on someone elses conversations!
Thanks for the posting and your honest assessment - but you definitely used the expression "altitude" twice mid-morning Friday. You may have also heard another aircraft querying this with Warton and confirming that the TRA was AGL.
But that's no crime. I only make the point because the TRA was badly and confusingly drawn - and this should not be the case when there appears to be a threat of armed response to anyone entering that airspace. You've got to admit that it's very wierd to have a TRA with a top that follows ground undulations.
If you had spotted an aircraft apparently inside the TRA, what proof could you offer that the "invader" was less than 3000ft AGL ? I have a feeling that a rad alt reading would not please a judge or a clever barrister. And who was it who decided to put a TRA under Class A airspace, which starts at 4500 on 1013mb ? In places there was less than a 700ft "gap" between the TRA and the Class A.
You have succintly outlined the cock-up factors which exist in the drawing-up of the TRAs and their interpretation. Some of what you write is funny - until you wonder if the same attitudes you describe pervade other areas of policing.
For what it's worth, I think Police ASUs are a fantastic resource being abused by bad management. For instance, you state that the TRA was the responsibility of a non-aviation area of Lancs Constabulary. Yet in other parts of the UK it's the ASU that draws-up the TRA. Why such variance in what should be a nationwide SOP ?