You may recall that before Christmas I conjectured in this column (I know, I am forever conjecturing) about whether Hunterston Development Company still existed.

Well, it doesn"t. But, a year ago, it still did.

Hunterston Development Company was formed in the late 1960s when such giant corporations as Chevron wanted to build an oil terminal on the local coast. Principally, the Montgomerie family of Southannan Estates - between Fairlie and West Kilbride - and the Cochran-Patricks of Hunterston Castle and estate were the main directors of the firm which negotiated with interested companies about using land on the Hunterston peninsula for industrial development.

Heavyweight industrialists like Sir William Lithgow and Sir William McAlpine were on the board of Hunterston Development Company along with former Conservative MP, Sir Albert McQuarrie.

HDC leased the land for terminals, jetties and the former oil production platform construction sites.

Enter at this point, Mr Alan Plato who moved to Largs in the late 70s to be site manager of the platform yard. Over the past decade civil engineer Alan was caretaker of the vacant site on behalf of the Hunterston company which only met twice a year.

In March, last year, the mysterious HDC with Mr Alan Montgomerie of Southannan, and the Cochran-Patricks still as board members sold out to Clydeport who, of course, over recent decades took over most of the Hunterston shore, including the ore terminal.

As can now be seen, the deal was done to allow Clydeport to go into partnership with Dong, the Danish energy giants who want to build the world"s first carbon capture clean coal power plant on the site of the former platform yard.

Meanwhile, politicians of various hues face a dilemma over Hunterston. Some, like Labour and Conservative, would welcome - as I do - a third nuclear station because we will need it before renewewable energy reaches a point where it can replace atomic plant. Others, like the SNP, don"t like nuclear but would support the clean coal power station if the researchers can come up with a workable carbon capture technology.

Whatever way it goes, Hunterston development will live on.