CHAIRMAN'S LETTER PUBLISHED IN CORNISHMAN 13/04/2010

I find myself in something of a quandary with Kevin Patterson. No sane person can argue with his description of our coastline, whose rugged beauty 'compares with anything on the planet'. His eulogy to ' the granite cliffs, the rocky coves, the spectacular clear waters teeming with life.' The fine old market town of Penzance and all that it represents.

Presuming he is the same Kevin that has previously written in support of Sainsbury's arrival I'm confused by this follow up. How Penzance will be improved by adding the concrete and asphalt of a fifteen acre supermarket site on an area that at least has the merit of bringing a splash of grass to the main approach into the town I can't understand. And why this town with a population of 20,000 and six existing supermarkets needs a seventh, or eighth if Morrison's plans are realised, is beyond me

Further if, by providing the new Sainsbury's store, the result is the move of the Noisy Smelly 'flying all day' helicopters to Lands End Aerodrome in the heart of the spectacular scenery he rightly loves so much, it looks like a double whammy.

Speaking to the environment agency, it appears that the whole of the heliport site was once a refuse dump in which some rather unpleasant materials were tipped. If correct it will take considerable work to seal or remove them. I don't know it the local bush telegraph has the story right but it says that when the heliport was first built in 1964 they had to excavate down to 18 feet and back fill before they could start building. If the same still applied, St Sainsbury would need to move about a quarter of a million cubic metres of material, transport it out of Cornwall, because it seems there would be no where to tip it here, and then bring in the same amount of back fill. Months of heavy transport possibly carrying unhealthy materials past every site bordering the A30

And then, as a final blow, they'd cover the water absorbent grass of the heliport with tarmac and roofs on a site at least half of which is high risk flood plain...

I can totally sympathise with his desire to move the disturbance of the helicopters away but the truth is that the only reason they have such a successful operation [although barely profitable if Tony Jones is to be believed] is because they operate from the Penzance transport hub.

Plus any move away from there would directly and indirectly contravene over fifty of the local plan planning guidelines and cause environmental havoc to a huge tract of West Penwith's most beautiful countryside, and the businesses that rely on its tranquillity to bring in their tourists. And I'm sure he wouldn't want that either.

Tony White. St Buryan