Wexford cleanest town but survey shows litter problems on the rise

THE NUMBER of towns with litter problems is increasing, according to the latest survey from campaign group Irish Business Against Litter (Ibal).

Of 53 towns surveyed in 2010, just over half received the accolade “litter free” – down from two-thirds in a similar study last year.

Wexford was judged Ireland’s cleanest town in the survey which was carried out by An Taisce. An Taisce praised the town’s “consistently high standards of maintenance of the environment”.

Sligo, Killarney and Letterkenny were the cleanest towns in their respective provinces, while Waterford emerged as the country’s cleanest city.

But Tallaght, described as “showing signs of overall neglect” and described as “a big challenge that must be surmounted”, shared last place with Portlaoise, Co Laois, which was described as a “litter blackspot”. Naas, Co Kildare and Midleton, Co Cork, were both judged to be “seriously littered”.

The survey revealed a strong improvement in Dublin city centre, which, along with Galway and Cork city, was labelled “moderately littered”.

Limerick was again the most littered city, but improved its rating from “litter blackspot” at the end of 2009 to “littered”.

According to the group, 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. Unlike roads in urban areas, these are not subject to a cleaning schedule.

Primary routes at the entrances to the cities and ring roads were often heavily littered, and cleaning was infrequent and inconsistent, the survey found.

The group repeated its call for a ban on non-degradable chewing gum. It said such gum remained stuck to pavements for up to 25 years. It said granting such gum a zero per cent VAT rate would be a good starting point.

The against litter group also called on businesses to clean up outside their premises, including car parks, twice daily. It said the move would have an “enormous impact” while reducing local authority cleaning costs.

Dr Tom Cavanagh, chairman of Ibal reminded businesses they were responsible for keeping areas outside their premises litter free at all times, regardless of the source of the litter.

The group has also launched a Twitter campaign in which members of the public are invited to submit photos by mobile phone of litter blackspots in their neighbourhood.

The “litter twitter” campaign is designed to alert local authorities to litter-ridden areas. Photos can be e-mailed to litterspotter.2010@twitpic.com.