Disadvantaged urban areas fare worst in anti-litter report

Local authorities need to step up enforcement against persistent littering – particularly in urban areas, one of which has been described as “almost landfill like”.

That is according to Minister for Environment Richard Bruton who was responding to the final Ibal (Irish Business against Litter) survey results for 2018. The report found five urban areas to be “littered” or “seriously littered” and to have made no progress over the last three years.

A section on Cork’s northside highlighted the North Ring Road as “almost landfill-like” and said, “long-term littered sites that have been repeatedly highlighted in previous surveys are not being dealt with.”

The results, commissioned by Ibal from An Taisce, found Fermoy to be Ireland’s cleanest town, followed by runners-up Killarney and Athlone.

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Waterford was deemed to be Ireland’s cleanest city while the report said 13 of the State’s main towns were “cleaner than European norms”. Some 17 more towns were “clean to European norms” and another five were only moderately littered. Just three towns were “littered” and just two – Ballybane and Dublin’s north inner city – were “seriously littered” . “Cork town” was classed as having “exceeded its usual high standards of cleanliness”.

While the report was essentially good news, it noted the persistence of blackspots. The Maples in Mahon in Cork was said to be “not just littered but subject to dumping with soiled nappies strewn about”.

Conor Horgan of Ibal said disadvantaged urban areas occupied the bottom five places in the rankings. These were Dublin north inner city; Ballybane, Cork City northside, Cork City Mahon and Ballymun, Dublin. No noticeable improvement had been seen in any of these areas.

Mr Bruton described the results as a “wake up call.”

“There are issues here about building momentum and motivation among communities,” he said. “ It is very disheartening if communities get together and then they find there isn’t enforcement against those who don’t respect the rules they are trying to bring in.

“ So I think we have got a wake up call and I hope the local authorities can respond,” he said.

Asked about the claim that parts of Cork’s North Ring Road resembled a landfill, Cork City Council said the rankings in relation the North City area and Mahon were “ disappointing” but did “not reflect the work carried out by both the City Council and community groups in these two areas.”

The council said lower grade rankings at Mahon represented “localised instances of littering and do not reflect the overall level of cleanliness of the area”.

It said it would be seeking funding in 2019 for a range of measures including CCTV to to target illegal dumping .

“Cork City Council will be reviewing the Ibal report findings with a view to assessing what changes, further actions or new initiatives need to be carried out to help bring about better outcomes for the whole City in future surveys,” the council concluded.