Today’s ‘word of the day’ was ‘clearance’. John G, Lance, Chris and Kev headed off early to the car park at St Benedict’s church where a skip we use has been piled much too high – too high to be collected. The guys cleared the excess into a second skip, leaving the first ready for imminent removal.

At the Canal Centre James, Diane and Jean cleared balsam and other foliage from the walkway behind the community garden, and John G came back to rake leaves and branches from the new seating area, which all went into the compost bin for future use.

Sharon and Moira trimmed buddleia overhanging the Pont John approaches, and James (he’s in there somewhere!) tackled the overgrown mass just upstream on the off-bank. Sharon also uncovered a mess of beer cans discarded alongside the aqueduct, which she cleared up and bagged for recycling.

But the biggest task of the morning was to clear balsam from the towpath between Pont John and the Mond bridge. The flower heads are well set and need removing urgently before they pop and disperse their seeds. Christina, Moira and Alan worked their way up to towards the Mond, pulling up what could be safely reached and lopping off what couldn’t.

Pete cleared the wall footing on the Mond side of the towpath and brushed away the debris.

Tasty cakes were dropped off early in the morning by Andy, who had other plans for the day, and we all enjoyed them with a chat for our ‘elevenses’.

After coffee a final push by the remaining vols cleared the last stands of balsam close to the Mond bridge. We’re confident of seeing the benefits next year, as we have elsewhere, with many fewer balsam clumps. This is one of those tasks that make all our efforts pay off!