ATC manning overnight at closed airports e.g. Bristol
Excuse my total ignorance here, but why does somewhere like Bristol in the UK, that is closed to aircraft from around 11pm to 6am then have air traffic controllers on duty at those hours? There are no aircraft going through its airspace (oh the police helicopter every now and again). It would seem pointless to waste valued ATC hours manning something where there is no traffic for seven hours. With the shortage of ATC officers elsewhere why not use these hours differently?