Chesty Morgan
Yes, of course, the commanders resonsibilites are clear and there should no doubt about that fact in any UK operations room, however, under FAR 121 it is different as we all know.
You know however, that where an option/s, acceptable to the commander exists, for example, the choice of alternate/s during poor weather; then ops control has a role to play in working with the commander to decide the best course of action- from an operational and commercial perspective. But for them to be able to work at your level they need trained and that is the core issue in this lenghtly post.
Thank you for the support on Ops training, but can I ask a favour of you, please have a chat with your Chief Pilot and Ops Manager and ask how far things have gone in your airline with respect to ops officer training to ICAO 7192 D3- you'd be a a popular chap with the ops guys and gals and be sure to get all your request days off granted!