WHY is Inchgreen Dry Dock - an industrial asset estimated to be worth £1 billion to Inverclyde - not included in plans for the multi-million-pound marine park which bears its name?

Why have local politicians, and others supposedly with the best interests of the district at heart, allowed this state of affairs to prevail?

Why has Clydeport, owned by Peel Ports - a company with similar infrastructure on Merseyside - snubbed a series of questions regarding its stewardship of our dry dock?

These are all questions that the Telegraph is confident our readers will agree are pertinent.

We reiterate, the fact that a private company which controls competing facilities in Liverpool, whilst Inchgreen languishes, should have been called into question by our local representatives long ago.

Why it hasn't is a mystery.

In the interests of making Inverclyde the very best it can be industrially, we asked Clydeport a series of questions - all of which have been snubbed.

For its director Jim McSporran to cite investment in freight cranes and infrastructure elsewhere on the west coast of Scotland, whilst ignoring the elephant in the room that is the dry dock, is contemptuous.

MSP Paul Sweeney, who has experience of the shipbuilding industry, previously set out a vision for the future of the dry dock as a maintenance hub for cruise ships.

Why this is not being explored is also a mystery.

What a state of affairs.

READ our latest Inchgreen coverage here