Naas celebrating 'cleaner than European Norms' ranking
A Co Kildare town is now ranked 'Cleaner than European Norms'.
According to the final litter survey of 2018 by business group Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL), Naas is ‘Cleaner than European Norms’ in 4th spot in the ranking of 40 town and cities. Meanwhile, Maynooth has regained its clean status, climbing to 25th position.
An Taisce, who carry out the surveys on behalf of IBAL, commented in its Naas report: “This excellent result mirrors that of earlier in 2018, with 80% of sites surveyed getting the top litter grade. Some examples of these included the Main Street, Tesco Metro, St. Corban’s Primary School and the People’s Park – these areas presented well and are clearly well respected by the users of same.”
The Maynooth report stated: “Congratulations to Maynooth on reclaiming its Clean status after slipping earlier in the year. Over half of the sites surveyed in the town got the top litter grade and the remainder were moderately littered (i.e. no seriously littered sites). Top ranking sites included Maynooth Train Station, St. Mary’s Primary School, Maynooth University and Main Street – the latter was much improved on IBAL Survey 1, 2018. There was an interesting sign at the Recycle Facility at Aldi ‘2 Litter Fines issued at this site in 2018 so far.”
Minister Richard Bruton said: “Combating litter is part of a much wider challenge – how we use our resources effectively and adapt to recognise environmental damage more generally. Litter is a very tangible, visible example of the kind of damage that is being done. It is vital that communities, businesses and local authorities in towns all across Ireland, work together to manage waste properly and reduce litter. I hope the recognition these awards provide spur others on to come together to make changes in their local areas.”
Just under 90% of towns surveyed were deemed clean, a slight improvement on the previous year, with Athlone and Killarney finishing just behind Fermoy. While Galway City registered its best result in years, almost half of city areas were littered, among them Ballybane in Galway and Dublin’s North Inner City, which were both ‘seriously littered’.
Disadvantaged urban areas occupied the bottom five places in the rankings. “Three years ago we deliberately shone a spotlight on specific city areas in the hope that the attention would spur councils and communities into action,” commented Conor Horgan of IBAL.
He said:“It is fair to say we have seen no noticeable improvement in any of these areas - nor have we seen much by way of substantial measures to them turn around.”
Mr Horgan said:“The historic development of large areas of social housing has shaped a "them and us" society and the gap is widening. Litter is a symptom of a greater malaise and keeping these areas as clean and well presented as the rest of a city would over time have significant benefits. We need local authorities to take the lead.”