[1] Whitworth had been approached by the Dorset and Somerset Canal Committee, with a view to him surveying that scheme, but felt that he was too busy with other work, and so recommended Bennet as a suitable alternative in 1793.
[1] Bennet estimated the cost at £146,008, and presented evidence on the engineering aspects of the project, which enabled the committee to obtain an Act of Parliament in 1796.
The Company obtained a new Act or Parliament in 1802 to authorise its replacement by a flight of conventional locks, but by 1806 it became evident that Bennet had underestimated the cost by a third, and he was dismissed.
He was involved with an inclined plane from Bathampton Quarries to the Kennet and Avon Canal in 1808, and he worked with Robert Anstice advising on the River Axe drainage scheme, also in 1808.
Between 1821 and 1825, he was resident in Eccles Green, Lancashire, and produced a report jointly with Thomas Tredgold in 1825, on using the route of the abortive Dorset and Somerset Canal for a railway.