Well, short of sending you the court paperwork Newbrummie, I'm not sure how I would ever convince you but I can assure you I got nothing I asked for from the Court other than the original PSO to stop her removing the kids whilst the hearings were set up.
I was very explicit that I wanted to keep things as they were (and had been for three years prior) with the only change being either that the status quo was documented and made the subject of a permanent Contact Order (effectively stopping the move) or that the PSO was made permanent and that we'd sort access out on an ongoing basis.
She asked that they set aside the PSO and formalise Contact as EOW, explicitly so that she could relocate the 180 miles. Cafcass found nothing wrong with either of us and made no recommendation either way. The Court (2 women, one man, all in their late 60's plus) in all its infinite, deeply sexist and outdated, wisdom decided not to apply the legislation which can prevent long-distance moves and told me, via the paperwork and in summation, that Skype, phone calls and eow were adequate for maintaining the relationship I had in place. Cafcass had an hour, I had an hour and she had an hour to give evidence and be cross-examined. Apparently that's enough basis for a Court to make relationship and life-altering decisions. Think you'd be able to "know" a family well enough to do that in that sort of timeframe? I wouldn't presume I could.
I was a massively hands-on Dad, both before and after she cheated on me and we split (her instigation too). I was heavily involved with schooling, clubs, pick ups, having friends round etc and had been with nappies, feeding, getting up at night, nursery etc etc etc before that. Not one bit of which made a jot of difference to those three magistrates.
I spent 10k, had a barrister in Court (as did she) and just ended up getting completely and utterly stiffed. I then had to listen to her "family" (previously absent and useless fil playing doting Dad for the day, SM, family friend) actually CHEER when they heard she'd got what she wanted. Not one of them stopped to consider whether pulling the kids away from friends, established school, their father, my very hands-on M&F etc would be in the kids best interest.
F. Court, I can tell you from my experience and that of several close, previously very-involved-Dad friends, rarely "favours" the Father. It's expensive, it's sexist and it's in need of root and branch reform. Good Dads these days don't sit on their arse and expect "wifey" to do everything - we're interested and involved and committed. FC and the presumptions it makes are rooted somewhere back in the 40s and 50s - coincidentally (not) when many current magistrates were growing up.
Sorry, OP, for the thread hijack but nobody much likes being called a liar, particularly by someone who's never met you and hasn't had to walk in your shoes.