During the winter, river levels were high enough to flood the community orchard and the fields downstream from Nightingales's Bridge.
This was followed by a cool damp spring, which seemed to delay the growth of balsam by a couple of weeks compared to previous years.
Overall the balsam situation along the stretch of the river in Frampton Cotterell was better than previous years. There were still some big clumps, notably at the corner of Hilly Field and around Meadow Mead but many areas were clear or only had scattered plants.
We had a couple of sessions along the river in Iron Acton and made some useful contact with a local action group there.
