VOLUNTEERS are needed to help reopen an old canal route that runs near Swindon.

Restoration work is going ahead well along the 29-mile line of the Cotswold Canals, which is made up of the Thames and Severn Canal and the Stroud-water Navigation.

And this week it was announced that a major engineering survey has started to see how the route of the Stroudwater Navigation can pass beneath the M5 motorway and the busy A38 trunk road.

Cotswold Canals Trust chairman Bruce Hall said money was available to finance the study.

He also said that the line of the Cotswold Canals, which joins up with the River Thames at Lechlade, was "the last cross country canal route still to be restored".

The trust was waiting for the result of their application for £22-million from the Heritage Lottery Fund which, would finance restoration of the canal between Saul Junction and Brimscombe Port.

"We will now be concentrating on more volunteer work on the eastern end of the canal between the Cotswold Water Park and the River Thames in preparation for the second phase of restoration," said Mr Hall.

He told members at their annual meeting the trust had well over 4,000 members and was going from strength to strength.

Assets totalled £343,000 and of this figure more than £250,000 was already earmarked for various restoration projects.

Meanwhile, work building a new bridge to carry the busy Western Spine Road over the Thames and Severn Canal near South Cerney is going well.

The new bridge, which is costing £500,000 to construct, will remove a major blockage on the canal rout.

It will also allow cyclists and walkers to cross safely and in time permit boats to pass through.