State cleaning up its act, litter survey shows

Cavan town has emerged as the country's most litter-free town while Dublin city centre narrowly missed out on inclusion in the top five of the State's dirtiest places, according to the Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) summer survey, to be announced this morning.

The second litter survey of towns with a population of more than 6,000 people to be undertaken by IBAL this year, it singled out Carlow, Fermoy, Trim and Dundalk as being among the cleanest, with Mayfield in Cork city the worst. Mayfield was followed by Finglas, Sligo town, Cobh and Ennis.

However, IBAL found the Republic is a much cleaner place than it was 10 years ago - the summer results showed litter levels now 30 per cent below those of 1995 and maintaining a downward trend.

Of the 57 areas surveyed, a record 13 achieved litter-free status, among them large urban areas such as the city of Waterford. Cavan remains the cleanest town in Ireland, the sixth time the town has claimed the title. Just eight towns were branded "heavily littered" or "litter blackspots".

The An Taisce judges bemoaned a "general lack of maintenance and air of neglect" in Mayfield in Cork. Six out of eight areas of Cork were in the bottom half of the league, as were all three Tipperary towns. The cities of Galway and Limerick improved to 14th and 27th places respectively.

Dr Tom Cavanagh of IBAL described the results as "broadly good".

"We are ridding ourselves of a reputation that was endangering our ability to attract tourists and overseas investment. Dirty towns are becoming the exception, whereas previously they were very much the norm.

Dr Cavanagh said the average cleanliness rating was 73 points, up from just 56 in 1997. "The target for the towns is 80, which equates to clean to European norms. In IBAL's view this is a reasonable expectation for the Irish people."

IBAL is confident that towns still classed as heavily littered or blackspots will follow the lead of the many towns who have improved since the league began.

"Remember, people in a town like Cavan or Carlow are no different from those in Sligo or Clonmel. What may differ is the determination of the local authority in these towns," he said.

"Contrary to the conventional wisdom, it's not awareness campaigns that lead to cleaner streets. It is the effort of authorities in stopping litter from going down and then having procedures to remove it. This means enforcement on the one hand, particularly of businesses who offend.

"On the other it means seven-day cleaning systems and appropriate equipment. Once the street is clean for a period, it tends to stay clean. This has been the experience of towns which consistently achieve litter-free status."

While both towns and cities have improved over the past three years, IBAL was disappointed that Dublin city centre remains a litter blackspot and this summer registered a sharp deterioration on the previous survey.

The N3 at Blanchardstown was the worst site surveyed in Dublin - the judges said a major clean-up was required followed by a sustained litter management programme.

Many of the city centre sites had a build-up of long-term neglect and judges said it seemed that "they just had not been thoroughly cleaned in quite some time". At one site the surveyor observed the street-cleaner emptying bins, cleaning the litter, but ignoring the cigarette butts. Very few of the sites had litter awareness notices - which An Taisce said were definitely needed, if only to draw the public's attention to potential fines.

The judges said a real addition to Dublin city centre was the "boulevard" or boardwalk along Bachelors Walk, commenting that "it could so easily be clean to European norms with a little extra effort". The same could apply to St Stephen's Green park, Christchurch Place, Parliament Street, Dawson Street and O'Connell Street - this last, however, had a serious litter problem. O'Connell Street generally "needs to be tackled once and for all", An Taisce said.

On the down side, Thomas Street needed "a sea change in attitude to litter, particularly on behalf of the street traders". Island Street was "clearly in a very deprived area of Dublin".

"Clearly this cannot be compared with your average town around Ireland, yet as a focal point for so many visitors, a clean city centre should be a real priority, said Dr Cavanagh.

Set up in 1996, IBAL includes more than 30 member companies.