Letterkenny’s status as a gold medal tidy town has taken a hit this morning as an anti-litter group has ranked it as ‘littered’.
The town has fallen considerably in the 2016 report from Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL), in which it was ranked as ‘Moderately littered’ in 2015.
Despite this latest report, the Letterkenny Tidy Towns Committee helped the town retain its Gold Medal at the National Tidy Towns Awards last year.
Letterkenny was placed in 35th position in the ranking of 40 towns and cities, which was carried out by An Taisce.
The report found that both the Strabane and Sligo approach roads were heavily littered which brought down Letterkenny’s grade. The residential areas of Ashlawn and Letterkenny Town Park impressed the judges and were ranked positively.
“The Town Park was a fantastic site which has been very well respected and maintained. With a little extra care and attention some of the Grade B sites could get the top litter grade e.g. residential area of Beechwood Avenue / Beechwood Park, Letterkenny Retail Park and Port Road,” the report said.
The report showed that 2016 saw an increase in litter levels across Ireland, especially in city areas, but almost three quarters of our towns were Clean to European Norms.
There was a noticeable increase in the prevalence of sweet wrappers, plastic bottles and cans across all the sites surveyed in Ireland, with a slight fall off in cigarette butts. The Letterkenny report said that areas like Letterkenny Retail Park had ‘pronounced’ levels of chewing gum and cigarette butts. “With a little extra effort this retail park could easily get the top litter grade,” according to the report.
Letterkenny Main Street was reported to be moderately littered. “Lower Main Street was more littered and had several derelict / abandoned properties, some of which had been painted and decorated, others hadn’t. Upper Main Street was generally cleaner with good street furniture and better maintenance,” the report said.
Galvone in Limerick City was at the bottom of the table. The cleanest town will be announced at lunchtime today in Dublin. Ashbourne, Kildare, Roscommon, Thurles and Waterford City are on the shortlist.
Conor Horgan of IBAL commented on the results to warn against the rising problem of people dumping their rubbish illegally to avoid bin charges.
“The problem is becoming less about cleaning up after kids have dropped sweet papers on the main street,“ says Horgan. “It’s about people deliberately and covertly evading bin charges by illegally disposing of their rubbish on wasteland or derelict sites, which then become magnets for all sorts of litter. Dumping needs to be higher on the political agenda, as it’s an issue that really matters to people, and to our economy.”
“The good news is that we are nowhere near as littered a nation as we were fifteen years ago, when only two towns were Clean to European Norms. However, we have seen some worrying slippage across both cities and towns.
“With record numbers of tourists flocking to Ireland, the increasing level of litter is a trend we need to arrest quickly, as it will have a direct and immediate impact on the visitor experience.”
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