Having been busy the last week, I've only just come upon this thread; interesting stuff.
Virtually the same thing happened to me recently, at Wolverhampton (Business Airport, known colloquially as Wolverhampton International, owing to their obvious delusions of grandeur
) WBA has only recently become ATC, and controllers aren't used to it yet, and neither are pilots. I was in an R22, and doing the usual helicopter low level approach, and told "report final for south side grass". I did, and got no response. I repeated it, slowing down - as a helicopter can - still no reply. I then called, obviously urgently: "Wolverhampton Tower, helicopter G- XXXX, extemely short final for south side grass; please confirm that I'm cleared to land", at which point he finally did.
I'm not sure what I'd have done if I hadn't been cleared to land. Probably landed, though yes, it's strictly illegal. But it would have been safe, and I knew the ATCOs were having a hard time coping. But I know the airfield. At an unfamiliar one I'd likely have gone around.
In the long run though, it's not desperately important, so long as what you do is safe. The situation shouldn't happen, and it forces you to make a very quick decision. If it were easy, this thread wouldn't have run to four pages. So FormationFlyer, don't you think your comments are a little over the top? Some of these comments may not be perfect, but questioning people's airmanship! Come on now, had you had a bad day, or what? Because every post so far has been useful...and flame wars help nobody.