More success for pristine Kildare Town with Top 2 finish in national anti-litter competition

Kildare Town secured a fantastic top runner-up spot in the 2017 Anti-Litter League compiled by Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL).

Ennis in Co Clare won the prestigious competition.

Second place is a big achievement for the small but dedicated army of local Tidy Towns volunteers in Kildare Town led by chairman Willie Redmond as well as other local community groups in the area.

Kildare County Council officials and staff also deserve praise for their support in Kildare Town.

Maple trees

Kildare Town will receive a prize of “Emerald Queen” Norway maple trees to enhance the local environment, courtesy of the Irish Tree Centre in Cork.

Kildare Town captured the prestigious title last year and an impressive Heart of Oak sculpture (below) to mark the achievement was later unveiled close to the Main Street.

IBAL emphasised at the awards presentation ceremony that local authorities had the sole responsibility to eliminate litter in towns and villages and that more resources should be deployed to help achieve this goal.

Environment Minister Denis Naughten announced the winners at an awards function in the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin yesterday.

Leixlip won a place in the Top Ten after it came in 9th position.

In the League of 40 towns and cities, Ennis edged out last year’s winner Kildare, with Roscommon in third position.

Waterford was again the cleanest city.

Redoubled efforts

Kildare Town community groups such as the Tidy Towns had redoubled efforts since last year's win and enforced many new improvements such as more rubbish bins and more dog litter bag dispensers on local streets.

CCTV, audio messages and signs were introduced at a previous litter blackspot at the recycling area in the local Tesco Car Park.

In the past 12 months, the busy Tesco store also made several changes to enhance its premises and its environs - which must be commended.

Kildare Co Council

Kildare Co Council sent its congratulations to Kildare Town and Leixlip.

A Council spokesperson added: "We wish to acknowledge the great efforts by local communities, businesses, schools and the Council's staff in helping keep our towns and villages throughout the county litter free."

Further work

More work is expected to take place in coming months in order to improve scores in the IBAL competition as well as the Tidy Towns competition.

One area to be worked on is improving the road surface of Academy Street - a busy route for school run traffic.

All shops, pubs, offices and homes within the town are also being asked to continue to clean up litter outside their premises.

Ennis

A special public sculpture to the value of €40,000 will be commissioned for Ennis to mark the achievement.

This year, 88% of towns surveyed were at least as clean as the European average.

An Taisce, which conducts the surveys on behalf of IBAL, commented in its report on Ennis: “An exceptional result for Ennis, which has performed strongly in recent surveys. All approach roads to Ennis got the top litter grade and this high standard was maintained for almost all of the sites surveyed in the town.”

Congratulating Ennis, Conor Horgan of IBAL said: “We have seen standards of cleanliness rise and rise since we first commenced this programme back in 2002.

Mr Horgan insisted that the prime responsibility for eliminating litter lay with local authorities.

He added: "To achieve top spot now requires maintaining an entire town in an almost pristine condition, which a local authority cannot do alone. In recognition of this fact, the IBAL sculpture is intended as a tribute to the people of Ennis.”

At the event, the IBAL spokesperson reiterated the threat of increased illegal dumping as pay-by-weight becomes more widespread, and acknowledged the Minister’s efforts to counter this.