Heliport
Pozidrive
Unfortunately, it wasn't a 'perfectly good heliport.' Even operating at capacity it wasn't making any money.
There was no overall planner at work here. It was called free enterprise. Sainsbury's, the newest supermarket, didn't say, "I wonder if Penzance needs another supermarket or should it keep its heliport?" They said, "If we can buy the heliport site we can build a new store there and make lots of money."
The 'word on the street' locally is that the heliport owners needed to realise the capital tied up there to pay off loans. Further, I'm told that there would have been few grounds on which the local planners could have prevented a new supermarket if sale of the land had been agreed. I'd be interested to hear if anyone with real knowledge of planning could expand on that point