No driveway specialist listed in Stranraer yet.

A driveway specialist lays new driveways and refurbishes existing ones - block paving, tarmac, resin-bound stone and concrete, including the sub-base and drainage that determine whether the surface lasts.

Front gardens of more than five square metres need planning permission unless the surface is permeable or drains to a soakaway, so check before laying impermeable materials.

Get the falls right - water should run off the driveway, not pool against the house - and ask for an SUDS-friendly approach if the area is prone to surface water.

Stranraer is a town at the head of Loch Ryan in the far west of Dumfries and Galloway, historically the main ferry port for crossings to Northern Ireland.

The ferry services relocated to Cairnryan in 2011 and the town has since focused on regeneration - the waterfront and harbour area are being reimagined as a leisure and marina destination.

Stranraer has a compact town centre with local shops, a museum in the 16th-century Castle of St John and the nearby Castle Kennedy Gardens, one of the finest landscaped gardens in Scotland.

The town sits at the western end of the A75, with a rail station providing connections east to Dumfries and Glasgow.

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Dumfries and Galloway is the most south-westerly council area in Scotland, stretching from the English border at Gretna to the Mull of Galloway - the southernmost point in Scotland - and from the Solway Firth coast inland to the hills of the Southern Uplands.

Dumfries is the largest town and administrative centre, a handsome red sandstone burgh on the River Nith where Robert Burns spent the last years of his life and is buried in St Michael's Kirkyard.

The region divides naturally into three historic areas: Dumfriesshire to the east, Kirkcudbrightshire (the Stewartry) in the centre and Wigtownshire to the west - each with its own character, landscape and loyalties.

The Galloway coast and countryside have a mild climate influenced by the Gulf Stream, fertile farmland, dark-sky reserves and a string of small harbour towns that attract artists, writers and visitors drawn to the quiet and the landscape.

Despite its size, the region is one of the most sparsely populated in Scotland - a place where community is strong, the pace is slower and the landscape ranges from river valleys and rolling farmland to wild moorland and rocky coastline.