Litter survey dishes up the dirt on Sligo town

Sligo is the dirtiest town in Ireland, a new survey has concluded. It ranked as the worst litter black spot in 2007 in a survey of 50 towns and cities carried out by An Taisce for the lobby group Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL).

Most towns in Ireland have cleaned up substantially since the annual IBAL survey began in 2002, when almost two-thirds of Irish towns were judged to be "litter black spots".

Last year just four of the 50 towns on the list were accorded blackspot status, but Sligo town was at the bottom of that pile. It is a particularly steep and unfortunate decline for Sligo, which had improved its standing with IBAL considerably in recent years.

The town did start in the pits of the anti-litter league, having been ranked among the most heavilylittered towns in Ireland in 2002 and 2003. However, it improved dramatically, coming in the top three for the next three years - 2004, 2005 and 2006. Despite the town's previous successes, the Fianna Fáil mayor of Sligo, Jonathan McGoldrick, rejected the IBAL survey as "absolutely untrue", and said Sligo was a well-kept, tidy town.

"The question that needs to be asked is when are these surveys carried out? The people of Sligo aren't aware of when this survey was carried out. If it was done in the middle of the working week the town would be well presented, but on a Sunday morning, of course there are going to be takeaway boxes on the ground.

"The way the survey is currently published, I really couldn't accept what they are saying about Sligo. In fact I would go to the extent of saying that it's as far from the truth as possible. We keep our city clean and well-presented."

Overall, the State's litter problem is improving, the survey concluded, with 22 towns now achieving "litter-free" status, compared to just two towns when ot was first conducted in 2002.

Equally, the number of litter blackspots has fallen from 62 per cent of towns in 2002 to just 8 per cent last year. The four blackspots, in descending order of dirtiness, are: Mallow, Co Cork, Tallaght in west Dublin, Nenagh, Co Tipperary, and Sligo.

The town ranked tidiest will be identified at a ceremony in Dublin today.