Ballina and Castlebar have ranked exceedingly low in an Irish Business Against Litter League — in fact, the Mayo towns were the worst in Connacht in the Anti-Litter League results which were released this week.
Out of 53 towns which were scored “moderately littered” Ballina came 42nd, while “littered” Castlebar lagged two places behind coming in at 45th, and the county town was described as the “worst of the Connacht towns”.
The judges’ report said that in Ballina’s case that only four out of the 10 sites surveyed in Ballina were clean to European norms. The two sites which really dragged down Ballina’s overall ranking were the swimming pool and St Muredach’s College.
The pool area was observed to be in a “shocking state and by far the most heavily littered site surveyed in Ballina”. The report said that the environment here was neglected, with no visible litter bins in the area.
In the St Muredach’s College area there “was a heavy build-up of debris including old clothes, plastic, cardboard and food related litter, especially broken glass” right inside either side of the gate. The college “was the worst result for an educational establishment in the entire survey”.
For Castlebar, five sites surveyed in the area were Clean to European Norms, but it was the presence of three very heavily littered sites which dragged down the overall ranking: the Pontoon approach road, Mayo Movie World/car park, and the shopping centre.
One vacant site on the Pontoon Approach Road “was responsible for the very poor litter ranking”. At Mayo Movie World the neglect “was all in the area around the pavements” which gave an “overall air of untidiness”. “There was one corner of the park with a very rough surface and uneven stones – an abandoned traffic cone and piping also contributed to the poor appearance.”
The shopping centre was described as “a real mess”. The report said that “the shrubbery areas are clearly not being cleaned and were riddled with heavy levels of all sorts of food related litter. The discarded clothing and cardboard only made the place look worse. The perimeter of the car park, at the base of the low wall, was also in a very poor state.”
With such poor results the IBAL has called on businesses to clean up outside their premises twice a day to improve streetscapes. Meanwhile, Mayo citizens are invited to submit photos by mobile phone of litter blackspots in their neighbourhood as part of a “litter twitter” campaign to alert local authorities to litter-ridden areas locally. “This is the perfect technology through which people can highlight areas that urgently need cleaning up,” explained Dr Tom cavanagh, Chairman of IBAL. Photos can be emailed to [email protected] and IBAL can be followed at twitter.com/litterspotter As part of the IBAL Anti-Litter League, An Taisce monitors all towns of population of 6,000 and over independently in accordance with international grading standards. Wexford was judged Ireland’s cleanest town in the survey, while Tallaght scored the lowest.
