PUTTING a canal through Faringdon Road and Westcott Place has won the overwhelming support of Adver readers.

The results of an Adver phone and internet poll asking whether council leader Roderick Bluh's canal plan is a good one show almost three-quarters are in favour of the idea.

Coun Bluh (Con, Dorcan) said he was bucked by the level of support but not surprised.

"I'm surprised anybody would think it's a bad idea," Coun Bluh said.

"It's about shaping the place.

"Everybody knows people are attracted to water.

"Swindon was a canal town and to give it back that sense of place would be incredibly valuable to the town."

He said he was also encouraged by the comments left by readers on the Adver website.

"Some of the comments on the website said the town lacks soul," he said.

"It's about giving that back."

Under the route being examined as part of a £500,000 traffic survey, the canal would connect with the existing waterway at Kingshill, run along Westcott Place, Faringdon Road and Fleet Street before widening out into a marina in Fleming Way.

The canal would pass under the railway line, probably in Bridge Street, and join the current canal plan through Purton.

Coun Bluh says the canal would transform the town, forming a massive tourist attraction to showcase some of Swindon's most important heritage.

The waterway would replace Faringdon Road and would run alongside the park which would become a feature of the scheme, along with the Railway Village, former railway museum and the Mechanics' Institute and the Milton Road Baths.

Coun Bluh hopes the marina or basin in Fleming Way could be fringed by cafés and hotels.

But the plan would also require a drastic revamp of the town's roads.

He said early plans would see an end to the current one-way roads ringing the town centre.

In their place, motorists would be able to drive in to the centre on one of four entry roads but then have to leave the same way.

Trust welcomes plan

THE CHAIRMAN of the Wilts and Berks Canal Trust says the Trust thinks the scheme is "fantastic."

Roy Cartwright said that three routes had been considered - two going around the outskirts of the town and the third along Faringdon Road.

But the town centre plan was by far the best, and cheapest, he said.

"If you go to any place that has put the canal through -Newbury, Banbury -it's done fantastic things.

"We think the idea of taking it past the old part of Swindon is fantastic.

"It's something that the town needs. "What Swindon has lacked in the past is identity and you can't just get that by putting up more concrete. The canal would give you that.

"It would make it a wonderful place."

The canal trust has done a study that showed the waterway could be built for £30m and would attract £8m a year to the town.

Mr Cartwright said that there were issues with the western end of the canal route - it should not continue along Fleming Way as far as the Magic Roundabout - but they could be dealt with.

Council leader Roderick Bluh has mooted that the canal could have a basin in Fleming Way but the exit would be back along its route then out through Bridge Street and under the railway line to Purton.

Mr Cartwright said the canal would promote alternative forms of transport.

"Once the canal goes in to Swindon, people like mothers pushing prams could get in to the town centre without crossing a road or using traffic lights," he said.

He said the routes around the town would require seven or eight locks, at a cost of £1m each.

Going through the flat town centre, known he said as "Brunel's billiard table", meant the canal would not need locks.

He said water supply was not a problem - modern pumps could easily refill the canal from its own water as it ran downstream.

But not everyone is in favour

NOT everybody is behind the scheme.

Swindon pensioner Frank Avenell, pictured right, questioned the wisdom of bringing the canal back to the town.

He said: "The canal just seems like a ridiculous idea.

"Only last year this area was on the edge of having standpipes so we could have water, so how on earth could we fill it up?

"The canal was abandoned back in the early 1900s because it had become stagnant, and all sorts of diseases and illnesses were developing as a result.

"Ultimately it would just become a dumping ground for all the supermarket trolleys that young thugs can find."

  • click here for the full interview