mad_jock - who is over controlling you on a Basic Service (and I take your point also to mean under a TS & DS too)? Is this one particular airfield or airfields or is it a large-ish area unit in the south-west?
Certainly for me and I would say the vast majority of my colleagues, the request of a Basic Service or indeed Traffic Service from a pilot comes as a bit of a relief as it drastically reduces our workload and responsibilities (though obviously not quite so much under a TS). It's certainly far easier just to say hello and goodbye to someone under a BS than to have to provide constant surveillance and traffic info/avoiding action under a DS.
I think sometimes though that some over controlling creeps in for expediency/laziness - why not give a quick heading to someone under a TS v traffic you are working under a DS rather than having to give a load of traffic info?
I think too, at my unit, due to the number of validations held whereby you can be working busy TMA or upper airspace traffic then, after half an hour break, you can find yourself on an ATSOCAs sector - it can be difficult to reign in your natural instinct to provide separation and instead adopt a more hands off approach.
While the former isn't really excusable the latter is hopefully understandable.
"Its whole requirement to separate traffic on deconfliction service from everything which is over kill".
I take your point about being vectored all over the sky under a DS (though only overkill if you hadn't requested the service and the service was imposed - which it shouldn't be) but from our point of view we can't simply ignore primary contacts - despite the majority of them being wind farms these days - as it's a requirement of the service. If you would prefer to 'see and avoid' why don't you just simply request a Traffic Service? If you then can't see the traffic you can always upgrade and request vectors. Under a TS, if 2 IFR aircraft are in conflict, an agreement can be reached between them to remain or change levels - these levels shouldn't then be changed without notifying ATC thus building in some separation.
You say that at least with Class E VFR traffic will be able to report n sight and see and avoid - what is that in comparison too? You can do this already in Class G!
As for Class E though, as Easy Street has mentioned, if it was stipulated that avoiding action may be given to IFR traffic against VFR traffic then I wouldn't have any objection.
Last edited by Pheasant Plucker; 29th October 2013 at 15:33.