Galway City loses ‘clean’ city status in litter survey

Galway has lost its status as a ‘clean’ city in the latest survey of littering in towns and cities across Ireland.

The canal walk beside Galway Cathedral was described as being in a “shocking” and “utterly destroyed” with litter.

But significantly, the survey found that dog fouling is no longer an issue on Salthill Prom.

The city has been described as “moderately littered” in the Irish Business Against Litter’s latest league tables.

As well as losing its status as the cleanest of Ireland four main cities, Galway has dropped from 21st place (of 40 towns and cities) in 2014 to 33rd place this month.

Environmental group An Taisce – which carried out the survey for IBAL – said the city could easily regain ‘clean’ status if given some ‘TLC’

“Galway City could easily regain litter-free status if the many moderately littered sites were given a little extra care and attention e.g. Canal Road Upper, the bottle bank at Galway Shopping Centre and the Millennium Children’s Park (beside Galway Cathedral).

“Some of the heavily littered sites have been treated very poorly e.g. the canal bank, Salthill Park, Mulvoy Park shopping centre and Liosbán Industrial Estate.

“The Canal Walk beside the Cathedral was a shocking bad site. A lovely river walk has been utterly destroyed by the persistent litter in the river, particularly around the reeds.

“As well as very high levels of all manner of casual litter, there were sheets of plastic, supermarket trolleys and fertiliser bags in the water – and swans and ducks had to negotiated their way through this mess. The litter wasn’t confined to the water either as the grassy banks were also littered,” the report reads.

A total of 27 sites were surveyed here – 14 received ‘Grade A’ (clean to European norms and virtual absence of litter); nine received a ‘B’ (moderately littered, scattered small amounts of litter) and two received a ‘C’ (serious litter problem, accumulations of litter and two received a litter blackspot ‘Grade D’. Meanwhile, the survey also found that dog fouling is no longer a problem on the Prom.

“Galway Prom was excellent and managed to get the top litter grade, despite high levels of activity – dog fouling was not an issue and has clearly been addressed.

“The residential area of Caireal Mór (Headford Road) was in very good order and Leisureland was nicely landscaped. St Mary’s College, Shop Street, NUI Galway and University College Hospital were all top ranking sites,” the report reads.

Five locations in Ireland were declared ‘moderately littered’ – Tallaght, the Dublin Airport environs, Galway City, Monaghan, and Midleton in Cork.

What the IBAL report says about different areas of city:

Canal Walk beside Cathedral: Grade D. This was a shocking bad site. A lovely river walk has been utterly destroyed by the persistent litter in the river, particularly around the reeds.

As well as very high levels of all manner of casual litter, there were sheets of plastic, supermarket trolleys and fertiliser bags in the water – and swans and ducks had to negotiate their way through this mess. The litter wasn’t confined to the water either, as the grassy banks were also littered.

Mulvoy Park shopping centre: Grade D. The shrubbery near FBD premises was choked with heavy levels of all manner of food-related litter.

As well as this litter, there were other issues – cardboard, industrial plastic bags and there was a stretch of paving with some thick-set paste or paint.

The Prom: Grade A. Dog fouling has certainly been tackled along this very popular site. A number of years ago it was a major issue in the IBAL Anti-Litter survey – not so this time around, with plenty of signage and facilities for the disposal of same. Despite heavy levels of activity, this was a spotless site throughout.

Salthill Park: Grade C. The situation of this park is lovely, slightly raised and overlooking Galway Bay. It has been used as a ‘drinking spot’ with all the associated litter, particularly beer cans. The view of the ‘band stand’ was marred by a large wheelie bin with litter spilling out. The wooden seating was old and in need of repair.

Liosbán Industrial Estate: Grade C. One of the only seriously littered Grade C industrial estates in this IBAL survey . . . characterised by heavy levels of all sorts of litter, graffiti on most of the roller doors, metal, broken glass and several discarded washing machines.

The Caireál Mór and Maigh Riocaird estates on the Headford Road and Ballinfoile Church scored ‘A’ grades, as did the Western Distributor Road, Leisureland, St Mary’s College, University Hospital Galway, NUI Galway, Galway Cathedral and Shop Street.