Mullingar has been declared ‘clean to European norms’ in the latest Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL ) Litter League, announced on Monday.
Mullingar came 34th of the 53 towns surveyed under the report, just one place ahead of nearby Athlone, and up from 37th place last year. In contrast to last year when Mullingar had only three top ranking sites, this year five out of the 10 sites achieved the top litter grade.
There was praise as always for Mullingar Railway Station, which had “a well presented and maintained station interior” and a “spotlessly clean” exterior.
While described as “an attractive, open green space”, the park by Grand Parade was “let down by a casual attitude to litter”, particularly fast-food wrappers and sweet papers.
Three of the four approach roads surveyed reached the top litter grade - the Athlone, Ballynacarrigy, and Castlepollard approach roads. However the Tullamore approach road was criticised for the presence of food-related litter and car parts such as broken tyres.
The poorest scoring site was the canal path, which the adjudicators found to be the most heavily littered site surveyed in the town. “It has been badly abused, particularly by outdoor drinking parties. There were no litter bins or litter awareness notices in the area surveyed,” according to the report.
Market Square just missed out on getting the top litter grade, which the adjudicators felt it could easily achieve with “a little extra care and attention”.
“The broken glass was particularly obvious,” they noted.
