Border Dumfriesshire

Scottish Water is investing more than £3.5 million to improve the water supply across Dumfriesshire.

The construction of nearly 10 kilometres of new water mains is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

A major restoration project has been launched at one of the biggest open cast coal mines in the south of Scotland.

Sixty jobs will be created as part of a project to landscape the mine near Kirkconnel and turn it into a renewable energy park.

The fate of the site was uncertain after the mining firm who used to operate it collapsed last year.

Kathryn Samson reports:

The Scottish Energy Minister Fergus Ewing is joining the Duke of Buccleuch to officially open a restoration project at the Glenmuckloch open cast mine in Dumfriesshire.

Work at the open cast mine in Kirkconnel was halted last year but has now resumed, and it is hopeful that the new project will help develop further energy provision schemes for Scotland.

The project will create 60 jobs during the restoration phase, which will include the creation of a lake and extensive forestation to enable carbon capture.

A woman from Bargrennan, near Newton Stewart, is living on £1 a day for five days to raise awareness of extreme poverty.

Ruby Marr is taking part in the "Live Below the Line" challenge, which is a campaign taking place in the UK, Canada, Australia and the USA simultaneously, with more than 20,000 people spending 5 days living below the line.

Mrs Marr has been raiding the reduced sections of the local supermarktes and grocery stores to try and find the cheapest food available.

She is raising money for UNICEF an has been finding the task harder than she first thought.

A charity, which finds homes for ex-racing greyhounds, is marking its ten year anniversary. And the Dumfriesshire and Cumbria Greyhound Rescue charity has something else to celebrate - staff there are about to re-home their 800th dog.

Members of the charity brought their adopted dogs to an anniversary event today at the Old Town Hall in Carlisle.

Marshall Swalwell runs the Auchenlairie Caravan Park for 26 years and is a big supporter of Destination D and G, he told our reporter Ryan Dollard:

"At my Caravan Park we have a return rate of more than 80 per cent. That tells you that once people have experienced a holiday here they like it."

He added: "We just need to come together to get more people to make that first trip. Getting together as an industry we can market the total package we have to offer better. "

More than seventy representatives of tourism attractions all round Dumfries and Galloway gathered in Gatehouse of Fleet today to discuss ways of promoting the area better. "Destination Dumfries and Galloway" is designed to attract more british tourists to the area for mini breaks.

Wilma Finlay said:"We need to get together and really let people know what a fantastic area this is to visit. We have beautiful scenery, stunning coastline and so many activities for all ages."

She added: "If we can persuade people to make the effort to give Galloway a chance I know they'll come back time and time again."