It shouldn't have come to it that the ATCO's had to 'fight' to get a working system.
You
do work for NATS, don't you??? Every project in NATS goes straight down this path, even though lesson-learning sessions and wash-ups take place. Speak to anyone involved in iFACTS right now; they're just at that critical stage where an engineering-led team has developed a product before the operational team tells them to go rip it up and start again due to the fact that it looks nothing like what was expected.
Let's not get into the LHR story. You don't know enough about it to contribute, but I'm happy to take it offline.