Without wanting to entirely blow my anonymity on an internet forum if your beef is with Linton send me a PM and I’ll reply with numbers, e-mail address etc and your situation can be discussed appropriately to ensure that this type of occurrence isn’t repeated. Contrary to what some contributors have posted here, we (certainly at Linton) encourage dialogue and open reporting if and when necessary.
I agree some of the less experienced controllers, particularly those still on OJTI can sound as if they’d like to own the airspace in and around the MATZ but I assure you that any request (even if it might sound like an instruction) made has the best interests of not only you but the other airspace users around you at heart; some of which are very inexperienced student pilots on a very demanding course.
As an aside, to describe Linton and Leeming as very busy last week would probably be over egging it a bit but stuff was happening that made things more complicated than normal due to various exercises that were taking place (all NOTAMed). Also if you are given a Basic Service it is likely that you will NOT be positively identified despite being given a transponder code. Which is why it is important (not to mention a legal requirement) for a pilot to receive positive clearance to enter CAS (i.e. the Durham CTZ).
PS Beagle, you’re always welcome to fly up to Yorkshire, we’ll even try not to mess you around too much.