In south-west Scotland, campaigners from Dumfries and Galloway have gone to the Scottish Parliament, to push the case for improvements of two of the region’s trunk roads, the A75 and A77 out of Loch Ryan.

The campaigners at Holyrood were joined by politicians and Stena Line, operator's of Belfast-Cairnryan from where in Scotland the A75 heads east to Dumfries and the A77 which leads into the M77 connecting Glasgow.

In Edinburgh the campaigners had met with the Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar and Scotland’s Transport Minister Jenny Gilruth, despite her previously having said she was unavailable.

Willie Scobie, a Stranraer councillor and campaign team member said: “We put our case to Ms Gilruth for both trunk roads to be improved to dual carriageway standards, not least because of the lack of investment over decades but, more importantly, because it was crucial for both the Scottish and Northern Ireland economies."

The Daily Record has more on the campaign and as Afloat reported last year, Stena along with P&O Ferries (to Larne), had sought the support of the local council in a bid to create Scotland's first "green port" at Cairnryan, which could unlock a £25m investment.

In 2011 Stena Line opened the purpose-built Loch Ryan Port (Cairnryan) terminal having ceased the historic link with Stranraer which is located further down the loch and away from the open sea.

The relocation of port also saw the introduction of 'Superfast' twins on the shorter North Channel route to Belfast where the VT2 terminal was upgraded last month.