THE Wilts and Berks Canal Trust deserves every success in its bid for a £50,000 Big Lottery Fund grant to create a wildlife trail.

Securing the fund is complicated by the fact that the trust must rely on people supporting the project in a television poll, but this is no barrier to its success.

The trust has been working steadily for years to provide the Swindon area with a fine visitor attraction and a fascinating link with our pre-Brunel past.

In the days before the railways began to dominate, canals were the arteries of the Industrial Revolution.

Their reign in Swindon was relatively short thanks to the arrival of the Railway Works and main line, but traces of them remain to this day.

The most prominent among these are, of course, the sections restored, repaired and maintained by the canal trust.

The eventual aim is to restore the whole canal as a leisure attraction.

Nobody who has strolled along the peaceful towpaths of the restored sections, or been on a cruise aboard the trust’s vessel, can deny the potential long-term, merits of this excellent project.

What makes the restoration especially admirable is that it is overwhelmingly the work of volunteers and funded by such donations and grants as can be secured.

It is truly a labour of love, and deserves to be loved by many more people.

A Big Lottery Fund grant would raise its profile nicely.