Council Van. Ultimately it is down to the ATCO wearing the electric hat who decides whether a flight may take place, irrespective of what any supervisory staff have agreed, except in the case of special priority flights obviously.
Many special flights cause no problems but depending on the traffic situation they may have to be refused or curtailed during the flight (I've been there, done that) and some of the low-level flights can cause extreme chaos.
As for the bloke who was asked to drive to Manch to point out the error in their ways...... unbelievable.