Litter survey lists tullamore as one of top 10 tidiest towns

Tullamore is the most litter-free town in the Midlands, outperforming Athlone, Mullingar and Portlaoise in this regard, according to a report published today.

The latest survey by the Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) alliance found that Tullamore was 'cleaner than European norms' and was tenth cleanest among the forty Irish towns which were assessed.

The performance of both Athlone and Portlaoise deteriorated since the previous survey, as both were classified as being 'littered' and were ranked in the bottom five overall.

In its report on Tullamore, IBAL said a 'considerable improvement' had been noted at a couple of sites.

'The Harbour and Main Street were much better than previous IBAL Anti-Litter surveys. Scoil Iosagain has maintained clean status and Aura Sports Centre and Tesco eXtra were both well presented and maintained,' according to the report.

Praise was also given in relation to the appearance of the 'Dublin' and 'Enfield' approach roads to the town, though the Tullamore to Portlaoise link road was 'moderately littered.'

Killarney was the best performer of all the towns which were featured in the survey.

The survey, carried out by An Taisce on behalf of IBAL, showed that sweet papers, cigarette butts, fast food wrappers and chewing gum were the most common forms of litter. Dog fouling, while not as prevalent, continues to be a source of public concern, according to IBAL.

“Where special bins are used to collect dog waste, they need to be emptied in tandem with demand. Otherwise they become unhygienic eyesores, as is the case with many recycling facilities,” said Conor Horgan of IBAL.

One in 10 shopping centres were litter blackspots.

“It is not always easy to identify where responsibility lies for littered sites in a town, but in the case of shopping centre car parks the local authority just needs to enforce the law with the landowner,” said Horgan.

“Until we see more prosecutions of this nature, there will be no real deterrent for offenders.”