IT WAS a pleasure to visit Torness and catch up with union and staff representatives. The clock is ticking towards closure and it’s vital that plans are made.

If there’s not to be another nuclear plant, and time seems against that anyway, other options must be considered. There’s a large site there, much bigger than the plant alone. There’s also a skilled workforce and easy access to other energy supplies and communication systems.

But so far, little seems to be getting done, which is unfair on staff and a threat to the local and national economy. Owners EDF understandably say it’s for others. Questions to the UK Government about financial support have drawn a blank – shameful given the plant was sited there at their instigation, and energy policy is reserved to Westminster. However, the response from the Scottish Government is equally devoid of strategy and financial support.

Options such as hydrogen plants need considered and the site is perfect for that. East Lothian has had both coal and nuclear power stations and, as we move to renewables, it’s only fair that it receives its share of the new energy technologies.

Meanwhile, the suggestion of the council partnering with Forth Ports to develop Cockenzie for cruise liners seems bizarre. As a friend, who’s an expert in maritime matters, said, it’s akin to asking Tesco to supervise an Asda development. Forth Ports have no strategic interest in the site and, indeed, it’s a potential competitor.

They have failed to develop any such project at the ports they already operate on the Firth and have always insisted it’s for the public purse to fund. Owned by a Canadian pension fund and where their major port operation is Tilbury, they’d be a dead hand on the site.

That doesn’t mean that the venture is either daft or doomed. There are other major operators who could assist and might well welcome the opportunity to challenge Forth Ports’ monopoly. Competition, not private monopoly, would benefit the Firth.