Rustle,
I did not miss the point at all, I was making the point that it did not matter what the clearance was, it was a night flight and under the rules IFR so eligible for charging. Just because leaving another airfield that does not have access to the system would probably not have resulted in a charge is a moot point. Liverpool would have logged the departure into the system and as it was night it was IFR.
I thing actually we are probably agreeing violently!