IN NOVEMBER LAST year Letterkenny was given the award of being Ireland’s tidiest town.
However, in what seems to be a dramatic turnaround in fortunes, it has today been described as ‘moderately littered’ in a survey carried out by An Taisce on behalf of Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL).
The group, who describe themselves as promoting “a clean, litter-free environment with international grading standards”, has ranked the Donegal town as 36 out of 40 when it comes to littering.
Despite this, the survey has shown some positive results for the rest of the country, with Ireland now being totally free of litter blackspots.
Only one area – Cork City’s Farranree – was found to be seriously littered.
While Ireland’s worst offenders were seen to be improving the country’s overall performance slipped slightly.
Three quarters of towns surveyed were found to be clean by European standards, a drop of 15% from 2015, while the number of towns classified as cleaner than European standards dropped from 17 to 12.
Where are the worst offenders?
After Farranree, Dublin’s north inner city was defined as being littered – the only area to receive that classification.
It was followed by a number of areas that are considered moderately littered, including Navan, Athlone, Tallaght, Letterkenny and Monaghan.
Including in towns that are defined as cleaner than European norms are Carlow, Waterford City, Roscommon and Killarney.
Five towns have made it onto the list of being cleaner than European norms. These are: Drogheda, Dún Laoghaire, Dungarvan, Kilkenny, Longford.
The IBAL will announce Ireland’s least littered town from this group later today.
Good performance?
While some areas across the country were seen to slip, there was much to be positive about.
In the last survey, published in August last year, areas of Dublin city centre like Grafton Street and O’Connell Street were seen to have had their performance slip – something they have amended this time around.
The area around Dublin Airport was also seen to have improved a great deal over the past six months.
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