If towns and villages can have twins, why not canals? TINA CLARKE reports on a plan that could see the Wilts and Berks Canal twinned with a French counterpart.

THE Wiltshire and Berkshire Canal may win up to £2.5 million in EU funding if plans to twin the waterway with a French canal succeed.

Negotiations are continuing between the canal trust and the authority that looks after the Nantes to Brest waterway, which runs close to Wootton Bassett's twin town, Blain.

Project officer Chaloner Chute said a twinning deal could mean EU backing for restoration work on the 52-mile waterway.

The cash could be used to restore the canal along the historic route to Cricklade, where a new cut around the town could link it to the Thames and Severn Canal.

Mr Chute said initial reaction from the French authorities had been positive but stressed it was still early days.

"It is a good idea and we are considering it," he said. "We have to see how they respond. One issue is that their canal is complete and restored, whereas ours is not. But there might be rural issues which we can explore with them."

The French commercial waterway in the South Brittany and Loire Atlantique region was decaying until it was renovated to provide leisure facilities.

Mr Chute has already met the French canal authorities, who have requested a second meeting.

He said: "I think they are keen. Our first meeting went extremely well. Their equivalent of British Waterways is now looking at the idea."

Later this week, Mr Chute will report his findings to the Wilts and Berks Canal Partnership, whose members include Swindon Council and British Waterways.

The 52-mile (83.2 km) length of the mainline Wiltshire and Berk-shire Canal was dug to connect the Kennet and Avon Canal at Seming-ton near Melksham to the Thames at Abingdon.

The canal opened nearly 200 years and the North Wilts Canal was joined at Cricklade nine years afterwards. But it was abandoned in 1914.

Restoration began after a 1998 feasibility study found the work was economically viable.

Four years later, eight miles of waterway had been improved, including sections at Dauntsey, Shrivenham and Wootton Bassett.

Rushey Platt Canalside Park, between the M4 and Okus, was opened last August after a £900,000 renovation project carried out by the trust, the council, The Great Western Community Forest, Wiltshire Wildlife Trust and Thames Water.

Tina Clarke