Campaigners want Swindon canal plan to be reinstated

Campaigners want the firm in charge of regenerating Swindon town centre to reconsider the planned route of a canal.

Under current plans the Wilts and Berks Canal will run to central Swindon, but end in a basin close to the centre.

The canal's trust wants a through-route from Westleaze on one side of the town to Moulden Hill on the other.

Forward Swindon said plans were "still in draft" and would be "re-worked in response to the public consultation".

Forward Swindon is proposing to bring the canal back into the town as far as a basin near Station Road.

The company says reinstating a canal through the town centre is "likely to prove prohibitively expensive to deliver".

But the canal trust said that ending the canal in the centre of the town would result in Swindon becoming a "dead-end canal destination".