1911: Wilts County Council - What about the Canal?

From the Evening North Wilts Herald, 17th May 1911

WILTS COUNTY COUNCIL

Mr. Wright said he had reason to believe that a move would be made to deal with the canal very shortly, and as the Council only met every three months, and as they would possibly have a communication before the next meeting, asking them to appoint representatives, could the Council relegate powers to the General Purposes Committee to deal with it?

Replying to the Chairman of the General Purposes Committee, Mr. Wright said that the canals he referred to were the Wilts and Berks Canal, and the North Wilts Canal.

Mr. Blake said that in the event of any communication of a serious nature being received by the Clerk, he would ask him to call a special meeting to deal with it.

The matter of the canals had been before the committee several years, but it had generally ended in reeds and rushes. Mr. Withy suggested that if the County Council were going to again consider the canal question, it ought to go before the special committee which dealt with the matter fully some years ago.

Mr. Wright said the negotiations had not been advanced sufficiently to enable them to write to this meeting, but if anything was heard within the next week or ten days he was anxious to avoid having to wait until the next meeting of the Council - three months hence - before any action was taken.

It was a very serious matter indeed and something really would have to be done, certainly, as far as the borough of Swindon was concerned, to deal with that public nuisance. The Chairman expressed the hope that something would be done, and though he did not know how far the negotiations had gone, they would be sorry to hamper whatever action was contemplated. He would be sorry to say how many years that matter had gone on, and of course, if anything urgent arose and it was necessary to take immediate action, he would call a special meeting if necessary.