Wiccan .. nope .. no "upset"
I just think things have changed a fair bit since then ... not to say they can't be improved further.
From my point of view both the intent and practice of ATC/Ops working relationship is cooperation. Ops teams dislike being unable to respond immed. to any controller requests - which can happen if they all all tied up with tasks or busy on phone/other radio channel etc ... it's the intent to respond and resolve anything as safely/quickly as possible. Indeed there can be times when the team will spot something and flag it up before it becomes a problem or offer an option when a problem has occured.
The intent of ops3/checker talking to the watch mgr well in advance is to allow him/her to liase with area (as well as runway) and then advise an appropriate timing.
If that doesn't take place the ops team won't know that, but will have the mistaken belief that it's been done.
It seems that in the past the working relationship was maybe not to happy .. all I can say that these days the intent is for ops to ensure that all works safely and smoothly and to assist ATC in delivering that.
I'd like to think that anyone listening to the radio traffic between ops/atc these days would be able to hear that in what goes on.
If it's still the case that internally area aren't getting a chance to have a say in timing inspection runs then I'm sure we can get something done to look at that
I'll certainly get the thing aired .... it would probably help matters along if someone from area fed some info in to me if they do get consulted .. pm me if needed folks.