The airspace around there and between Birmingham and East Mids and around Coventry is very busy with lots of users funnelled into the class G condensing the traffic. Birmingham and East Mids usually will not offer any zone transits and ask all to remain clear of the controlled airspace. This can compund traffic density. Should ATC allow better use of Class D to reduce hot spots in class G or open FIR ?
All aircraft requesting a transit of Birmingham controlled airspace will be allowed to do so subject to traffic conditions and controller workload. I have never refused a transit to anyone wanting to do so.
We routinely advise pilots to remain outside controlled airspace to remind them that they haven't got a clearance to enter not because we are refusing a transit, thereby preventing a potential incursion of CAS The majority of GA traffic inbound to / outbound from EGBE generally has no requirement to transit controlled airspace. If you want to transit, call 118.050 and ASK!
Coventry operating their own primary only radar rather than a primary/secondary feed from NATS. My untrained eye finds it much easier to see conflicts on the NATS screens than on Coventry's.
Coventry have secondary radar