Mixed results for Kingdom towns in litter league

THE latest IBAL Litter League is great news for Killarney but a dismal result for Tralee.

The League – run by An Taisce on behalf of the Irish Business Against Litter environmental alliance of businesses – sees 40 Irish towns and city centres rated and ranked according to the their cleanliness.

While the south Kerry tourist Mecca scored well with judges and jumped 10 places – to sixth in the league – Tralee was harshly criticised and slumped a further three places to end up near the foot of the table in 34th position.

Judges from An Taisce assessed litter levels over the summer months on behalf of IBAL, and 77 per cent of towns and cities were found to be clean. None were deemed to be a litter blackspot, but nine – including Tralee – were deemed to be ‘ littered’.

The IBAL judges were highly complimentary in their assessment of Killarney, which was found to be ‘ cleaner than European Norms’.

“A great achievement for Killarney to score so high during the peak tourist season. Clearly great care is taken with the overall presentation of the town,” they state in their adjudication report on the town.

“Some examples of the top-ranking sites included Bishop’s Lane, New Road, Main Street and Recycle Facility at Main Street – the latter was spotless, and it is quite a rare occasion in IBAL surveys that Recycle Facilities are deemed to be spotless,” the judges wrote.

“The Main Street in Killarney was in excellent order. There was some lovely paving, for both the footpath and road surface, along one stretch of the street. The area was also enhanced by large planter boxes, seating, bollards etc. All aspects of the area surveyed were in very good condition” said the judges.

Tralee – which was deemed to be ‘moderately littered’ – did not fare as well. While the judges found no seriously littered locations in the town, they said there was a general problem with litter all over the county capital.

“There were no seriously littered sites or litter blackspots in Tralee, but there was a distinct shortage of litter-free sites with almost all moderately littered,” the judges report states. “If some of the latter were improved this could make a big difference to Tralee’s overall ranking e.g. Denny Street, The Square and Milk Market Lane. Pairc an Phiarsaigh was the only top ranking site – it was wasn’t just good with regard to litter but also presented very well,” said the judges.

Addressing the League as a whole, IBAL’s Conor Horgan said that the organisation had seen “a worsening of litter levels in economically disadvantaged areas, which dominate the lower placings of our rankings,” and suggested a lack of pride in these areas.