Dick
Thanks for picking up the ball on this one,your comments that -'and many people within Airservices, didn’t really realise that changing Flightwatch from a standalone VHF frequency, to combining it with ATC, had a number of serious implications' is being very nice to ASA management.
The people in ASA making these decisions are being paid BIG money to 'realise ' the implications of what the changes to FW mean. It took about 2 seconds for controllers and pilots to realise this. What the hell would we know?, we only use the system everyday.
However, unless they continue to shrink costs and increase profit, they won't stay on their BIG contracts and AWA's. Meanwhile they will fight tooth and nail to make sure the people doing the coalface work get bugger -all (or less) for the added workload and stress.
They then get safety cases , hazard IDs and risk mitigation, and pseudo industry consultation, in an effort to show interested third parties i.e. the Board and media that they have ticked all the boxes , and done the right thing in case it bites them down the track.
An example is the demise of FW as a stand alone entity.
As I have stated previously, if the faeces hits the fan, the controller and pilot will wear most of the blame as the instigators of this cost saving ( ie bonus building ) exercise would have tinplated themselves.
Dick, unfortunately ASA see you as white noise, they will push on regardless. Money talks.