Limerick besmirched as study bemoans nation's litter level

WE ARE getting dirtier as well as poorer. And if Limerick is a lady, as the song goes, she is one who appears down on her luck.

That is according to the results of the 2010 survey commissioned by Irish Business Against Litter (Ibal) published this morning. Of 53 towns surveyed, just over half received the accolade “litter-free” – down from two-thirds on last year.

While Ibal chairman Dr Tom Cavanagh welcomed a rise in the average score of all 53 towns, which he says is “closer than ever to the European average”, the survey does not hide its criticism. Limerick, last year described as a “litter black spot”, improved this year to merely “littered” but it was referred to as “again the most littered” of cities.

Survey conductors An Taisce commented: “The really poor sites in Limerick city were not just heavily littered but many of them were neglected or derelict.” It was noted some litter was “old”, while nowhere in the city or its suburbs entered last year’s Tidy Towns competition.

The distinction of worst-performing town was Tallaght. The Dublin suburb was dubbed a “litter blackspot” which was “showing signs of overall neglect, a big challenge that must be surmounted”. Naas, Co Kildare, and Midleton, Co Cork, also fared badly, both judged to be “seriously littered”.

Irelands cleanest town was Wexford, which had “consistently high standards of maintenance of the environment”.

Sligo, Killarney and Letterkenny were the cleanest towns in their provinces, while Waterford emerged as the cleanest city. The survey revealed a strong improvement in Dublin city centre, which, along with Galway and Cork cities, was labelled “moderately littered”.

The criticism was not confined to generalities and Hillview Drive in Portlaoise was described as one of the worst sites in all of the Ibal litter surveys and “sacks of rubbish were on the pavement with the contents strewn across the path.”

In Tuam, Co Galway, the survey specifically mentioned “dumping on a large scale at a private house” while a shopping centre in Castlebar was described as a litter blackspot.

According to Ibal, the loss of litter-free status was caused in most cases by the neglect by county councils of approach roads, among them key entry points to airports and seaports.

But while the fall in the number of litter-free towns was described as “a disappointment”, an Ibal spokesman pointed out the “good” towns helped raise the national average.

When we are bad, it seems we are only moderately bad, but when we are good we are very, very good.