The latest survey by the Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL ) alliance shows Galway city as ‘moderately littered’, losing its Clean to European Norms status, and in 33rd position in the ranking of 40 towns and cities nationwide.
While many of the sites surveyed were found to be in good condition — the majority of sites in Galway scored an A or B grade according to an An Taisce inspector — a small number of areas were found to be moderately or heavily littered.
“Galway city could easily regain litter-free status if the many moderately littered sites were given a little extra care and attention, eg Canal Road Upper, bottle bank at Galway Shopping Centre, and Millennium Children’s Park," the An Taisce report stated.
"[Salthill] Prom was excellent and managed to get the top litter grade, despite high levels of activity — dog fouling was not an issue and has clearly been addressed. The residential area of Caireal Mór was in very good order and Leisureland was nicely landscaped. St Mary’s College, Shop Street, NUI Galway, and University College Hospital were all top ranking sites. Some of the heavily littered sites have been treated very poorly, eg, canal bank, public park across from the Prom, Mulvoy Park Shopping Centre, and Liosban Industrial Estate.”
The canal bank beside the cathedral received one of the lowest grades in the Galway report, a D, with an inspector describing it as a "shocking bad site" where an otherwise lovely walk had been "utterly destroyed by the persistent litter in the river, particularly around the reeds".
Mulvoy Park shopping centre also received a D grade in the report, where the inspector found shrubbery "choked with heavy levels of all manner of food related litter."
Of the 27 sites around city surveyed — which included shopping centres, residential estates, the grounds of a number of buildings, and, for the first time, link roads — 14 received an A grade, including Caireal Mor and Maigh Riocard, Ballinfoyle Church, Galway Shopping Centre, Shop Street, Galway Cathedral, and Salthill Promenade. Nine located were given a B grade, two a C grade, and two received a D.
See the map below for full details on each site surveyed.
