the second attempt followed a meeting of the union club in halifax on 2 september 1756, which considered how to improve the import of wool and corn to the town. they invited the civil engineer john smeaton to make a new survey, which he did in late 1757, and produced a scheme which involved dredging shoals, making of cuts, the building of 26 locks, to overcome the rise of between wakefield and the halifax brook, and the construction of a reservoir at salterhebble bridge. a committee raising subscriptions for the project in rochdale insisted that the plans should be amended to include an extension to sowerby bridge, despite opposition from the halifax committee. an act was obtained on 9 june 1758, for this extended route, and created commissioners, who had to own an estate valued at more than £100, or have a personal fortune of more than £3,000. any nine of the commissioners could make decisions.