Bookworm,
Erm yes you are quite right although when I measured it against a map a couple of days ago it appeared to be be 5 nm. Don't know where that came from although it may have been the vodka sent by brother approach who is with th EEC delegation in Moscow. Having said that why is it a great problem as the jumpers will still be within the circle on the map. As to obstacles, on virtually any cross country there will be plenty of areas to avoid so again what is the problem? If the circle is only 3.5nm its an even smaller deviation.
If you find that avoiding such areas is a nightmare then I am afraid that may say more about your concerns as a pilot than the preponderance of avoidance areas. I suspect that what you are really complaining about is the inconvenience of having to plan around such areas rather than actually encountering them as they cannot amount to more than a minor inconvenience to most pilots. I don't mean to appear personal but from persoanl experience I am sure that we have all experienced minor navigational inconveniences but deal with them.
If I fly from East Anglia to Bristol I experience a number of deviations but c'est la vie I w't really describe them as a nightmare.