There are various sides to this story:
- The Walton family own the airfield and some of the aircraft but not the VC10. They didn't want to run the business anymore and leased this (the airfield and facilities) to Cox, a US company.
- Cox want the airfield for their automotive business, nothing else. Because of this they have asked other users to vacate the site.
- The VC10 was/is owned by GJD but they were not based there anymore and the VC10 was only allowed to be there and run while the Waltons were running the facility and as long as it did not get in the way of business. The company scrapping the airframe is GJD itself, so they are cutting up their own property.
- Moving the VC10 would have meant a six-figure sum would have to be found. This was tried for ZA147 and this fundraiser never came near anything realistic.
In the end it boils down to money, but there is not one single villain in this story. I suspect some of the parts may find their way to the project that aims to fly ZA150 again, some parts will end up at
https://www.doors2manual.org/ and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the cockpit section may be saved. Time will tell.