George Eliot wrote in her classic novel Middlemarch: “It is always fatal to have music or poetry interrupted.”

For Swindon art aficionados, or maybe those who just appreciate a little individual flair, the Anti-Social Behaviour Order notice handed out by Swindon Borough Council to street poet Danny Lake is just that – the death of creativity and free expression.

He works around the town centre scribbling inspirational verses in chalk on the pavements near the Brunel Centre.

His words aren’t offensive or inflammatory. They don’t libel or insult anyone. They are just his own take on life and the things that have happened to him.

Pavement art is common in many liberal-thinking cities around the world and is accepted as buskers, speakers and other performers.

So why is Swindon so backward?

Isn’t this the kind of thing that gets visitors talking and encourages them to come back?

Teaching staff at Ruskin Junior School were so impressed when they saw a previous story on Danny in the Adver they got their pupils to follow his lead in the playground for national poetry week. Does that sound like a bad influence deserving of an Asbo?

Does anyone think they would be so heavy-handed if it had been Banksy plying his artistic trade on the pavements of Swindon? Or would council officers be hastily preserving his work in the expectation of making a few million quid?

Is that’s the case what is really wrong with a bit of chalk which, let’s face it, will never be around for very long in our weather.

We say leave Danny alone to add a bit of colour and artistry to Swindon’s pavements. It makes a change from chewing gum and burger wrappers.