Brain Fade, the no "one backtracking, one from the intersection departure" rule on RW 06 is exactly that, THE RULE. On 06 we cannot see either aircraft from the tower, it may seem pedantic to you, but do you really want us controlling traffic that we cannot see. As for "surely you would remember", well yes you would think so, but in very busy situations controllers have been known to make mistakes. Also you wouldn't think the one behind would roll into the one lining up. Well it has happened before elsewhere. You were totally right about the layout of the airport making a difficult job for the ground controller. I know its annoying for those flying the aircraft but it is just as annoying for us in ATC. Yes the rules on ground make it a longer wait for push back, but we HAVE to have 2 clear stands between jet aircraft pushing back, it avoids blowing away the ground crew. We don't like having to hold aircraft off stand while they wait for 2 or 3 to push in order to vacate their stands, but sometimes its unavoidable. Try explaining to a pilot that you held him on stand, pushed someone else first so you could taxi someone in, and oops now he's missed his slot! We do the best we can with difficult circumstances and provide the best runway utilisation we can under difficult circumstances, can you imagine how infuriating it is to have a queue of traffic at the holding point, 6 or 7 inbounds in sequence and then the first aircraft at the holding point pipes up "oh by the way, we require a backtrack". Sorry rant over, your point is very valid and I'm sure you were in no way implying that it was ATCs fault. If you are interested please come and visit us in the tower, and if you are a pilot flying into Edi please please complain loudly about the lack of full lenghth taxiways and get everyone you know to do the same, god knows we have been trying. Hopefully things will improve when we get our new tower, but then again I could have just seen a pig fly by
(edited for gross stupidity cos I didn't read the previous post properly b4 I started ranting, my most humble apologies to you BF)