PPRuNe Radar is (not very surprisingly) pretty close to the truth, as is Chevvron.
Indeed at a certain SATCOs meeting in the mid 1980s (do they still happen?) CAA / NATS, as it was then, floated the idea of doing approach for ALL regional airports from one central location, be they "state" or "non state".
It didn't happen. Not for technical reasons, the idea was perfectly feasible, but for the two reasons above.
One, it would give CAA / NATS a monopoly whcih would be difficult to revert back from.
and Two,
one well placed bomb knocks out a whole host of airfields instead of just one!
My own 2ps worth? The big advantages of the close operating environment that was lost when APP RADAR was moved away, was not made up for by the physical closeness to the TC Controllers. (HD's Hugs excepted!)
Question. How many TC AREA controllers hold APP RADAR validations and vice versa?
Rgds BEX