It's a clean sweep for Dundalk as town tops litter-free league
Dundalk Urban Council workers, from left, Gerry Martin, James Murphy, Art Veerkamp and Christy Quinn, whose work has helped the Co Louth town claim the title of the cleanest town in Ireland
Tuesday January 08 2008
Dundalk has swept away the competition to be named as Ireland's cleanest town in a litter league table of 50 towns and cities across the country.
The Co Louth town pipped Cavan as the overall winner of the Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) league for 2007.
Both were among 22 towns to be classed as "litter-free" in the survey, in which towns are monitored by the environmental group An Taisce.
Nine out of 10 sites surveyed in Dundalk got the top litter-rating and all of the approach routes into Dundalk were "excellent".
"Dundalk stands out for the consistent cleanliness of its environs, from the approach roads to the main streets and municipal areas," the judges said.
A jubilant town delegation was preparing to celebrate their big win following yesterday's IBAL announcement in Dublin.
Town councillor Ian Dooley said it was a tremendous achievement for a town ranked 25th in league four years ago.
Joining in the celebrations was Minister Dermot Ahern, a Dundalk-native, who described the win as an "outstanding performance" by one of Ireland's largest towns.
Consistent
"It is an exceptionally consistent result when you consider that Dundalk was named the second cleanest town in Ireland in 2006," he said.
News that the town had topped the league table came after Sligo was branded as Ireland's dirtiest town -- Sligo was followed by Nenagh, Tallaght and Mallow, as the country's only "litter blackspots", while another four -- Enniscorthy, Cork city, Dun Laoghaire and Athlone -- were classed as "seriously littered".
Another 14 locations, including Limerick city, Kilkenny, Portlaoise and Tralee were categorised as "moderately littered".
The results also brought grumblings from Cork where members of the business community disputed the findings, which ranked the city in 45th place as "seriously littered".
Cork Business Association questioned the city's ranking, with CEO Donal Healy insisting the situation was far more positive on Leeside.
"I think some of our traders here wouldn't agree with the figures. Millions have been spent on the upgrade of our city streets in recent years. Machines are out every morning, bins are cleaned daily.
"I would ask anyone to walk our streets any day and they are no worse than they were 12 months ago. I think they are much cleaner."
IBAL chairman Dr Tom Cavanagh said the overall results showed we had almost reached the target set in 2002 to make Irish towns as clean as their European counterparts.
"Despite increased urbanisation, there is no doubt that our towns are becoming a cleaner place to live and work in," he said.
"In 2002 we had just two towns achieving 'litter-free status' and we now have 22. It's the eight towns graded 'seriously littered' or worse that need to be targeted."
The survey found that while litter levels had improved in the past five years, there had been a 30pc annual rise in fast-food litter.
Takeaway food and packaging were present in almost half of places surveyed.
- Fergus Black
