Galway loses tidiest city crown

Date Published: 05-Jan-2010

GALWAY has suffered a rapid fall from grace in the national litter league table – the latest survey shows the city dropped 37 places in 12 months and now it has also lost its crown as Ireland’s cleanest city.

The latest results of the Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) survey ranks Galway in 45th place out of 60 and describes the city as “moderately littered”.

In the corresponding survey last year, Galway was “clean to European norms”, ranked eight and was Ireland’s cleanest city but it has now lost this tag. In June Galway had plummeted from eight to 42nd place and dropped three further places in the intervening six months, losing its litter free status.

Worryingly, among the areas found to be ‘seriously littered’ in the city are popular tourist attractions. Dog excrement

blighted the Promenade in Salthill, which was the worst site surveyed, where 23 incidents of dog fouling were recorded during one visit and broken glass, cigarette butts, cans, sweet wrappers and food was prevalent at the Spanish Arch.

Mainguard Street and Shop Street also has a serious litter problem with cigarette butts the main culprit prompting IBAL to urge Galway City Council to consider taking legal action against shop owners and businesses who are responsible for pavements outside their premises.

On the plus side, Quay Street was described as an “excellent site … well presented and maintained”, Ceannt Station is “exceptionally well maintained”, and St Nicholas Collegiate Church, Church Yard Street and Upper Cross Street were also praised.

The approach road from Clifden to Galway City gave a positive impression but on the East side of the city, the Dublin and Headford roads approaching the city were moderately littered.

A spokesperson for the local authority said the findings were “disappointing” and the Council’s environment staff are going through the report to establish exactly what has been said area by area and what the cause of the problems is.

In relation to dog fouling along the Prom, the Council said it requires the co-operation of the public and responsibility of dog owners to use the ‘poop and scoop’ facilities made available. The spokesperson added that the Council takes the survey seriously and it will speak with businesses in areas that are littered to see how the problem can be improved.

For the full report see page 5 of this week’s Sentinel

See also

• No plans for CCTV to deter littering at bottle banks – Page 5
• Dog fouling on Prom makes it a blackspot – Page 4