Thanks for your replies...
I reported to the N of the airfield requesting rejoin in the hope they would clear me directly in from the N, but what they did was told me to proceed to the VRP and report there, stipulating "not yet cleared in". I could have of course refused, but then I'd probably still be orbiting there now
They did give some traffic advisories for example "Cessna outbound, similar altitude"so I guess I can't complain too much. Just thought it'd be safer to use one VRP for outbound traffic, one for inbound on both sides of the zone [ie 2 OB, 2 IB]......
I like the idea of staying high as long as possible but Pulse1 hit the nail on the head. Troube is en-route from the NW VRP [EGHH Tarrant Rushton for your info] to the airfield there is a 'congested' area, probably at about 200' msl, meaning that in theory I should be at 1700' inbound, unless Rule 5 is not applicable because I'm landing at a licenced aerodrome?.....
Cheers
EA