Galway City slips down the rankings in litter league

 Galway City has slid down the rankings to 28th place in a littering survey for 2013.

 Part of the Galway Retail Park on the Headford Road has been branded the dirtiest spot in the city, after it was found to be in a “terrible state”.

One of the City Council’s own operations – the recycling facility in Renmore – was described as “untidy and grubby”.

However, the overall result was declared an improvement on 2012, with 14 of the 25 areas surveyed in the city being given a clean bill of health.

The Irish Business Against Litter ‘Anti-Litter League’ surveyed 42 towns and cities across Ireland – Galway dropped thirteen places from 15th spot.

The city was declared ‘Clean to European Norms’ in the survey (last year, it was ‘Cleaner than European Norms’).

Some of the top ranking sites included Eyre Square, Ceannt Station, Mainguard Street, William Street, Renmore sportsgrounds and near the Kingfisher gym in Renmore.

An Taisce, who were commissioned by IBAL to carry out the survey, said: “A big improvement on the first survey of 2013 – Galway is now classified as ‘Clean to European Norms’. 

“Fourteen out of the 25 sites surveyed got the top litter grade and the remainder (bar one) were moderately littered. A couple of moderately littered site just missed the top litter grade. 

“By far the worst site surveyed was Galway Retail Park – there is a long-term litter problem at the rear of this centre,” the report says.

Read more in today’s Connacht Sentinel