Councillor rubbishes Castlebar litter ranking

IMPROVING STANDARDS?Dr Tom Cavanagh made a presentation to Ballina Mayor Johnnie O’Malley after Ballina’s performance in the Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) competition.

Councillor rubbishes Castlebar litter ranking


Castlebar second-worst Irish town for litter, says report

Ciara Galvin

CASTLEBAR councillor Eugene McCormack has said he does not believe the Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) League report for 2013 ‘for one minute’.
The Fine Gael councillor made the comments after the report ranked Castlebar 41st out of 42 towns and deemed it ‘littered’. The county town comes just ahead of Dublin’s North Inner City, the most-littered town in the latest league ranking. Kilkenny was crowned the least-littered town.
Castlebar’s poor performance in the league has resulted in the loss of its ‘clean to European norms’ status.
Speaking to The Mayo News Cllr McCormack said it was ‘unbelievable that such a swing in our ratings should occur’.
The An Taisce-commissioned IBAL report listed four good sites and two moderately littered sites in the town. Two recycling areas – one adjacent to Dunnes Stores and the other at the Mayo County Council Machinery yard on John Moore Road – were deemed ‘in very poor state’. The report added that the latter site was a ‘litter blackspot’ and ‘one of the worst in the country.
“They picked out an area … but Castlebar has never looked better. The Tidy Towns results increased by a number of points each year consistently. I don’t believe that IBAL report for one minute,” said the councillor, adding, “The Tidy Towns report is a much more accurate assessment of the state of the town’s cleanliness.”
The councillor concluded that the town council had put money aside for extra flower hangings for the summer season and added that he was looking forward to the Tidy Towns report in 2014.
Meanwhile, Ballina was celebrating after it came in at number 27 in the league and gained ‘clean to European norms’ status.
Cllr Willie Nolan said it was a ‘great achievement for the town’, and he commended Jim Friel and the dedicated Ballina Tidy Towns Committee, along with the ‘award-winning work of Town Council Gardener Peter Regan.  
Ballina had eight top ranking sites in the 2013 report, with the Public Park and Prom along the Moy River, Barrett Street car park and Ballina Sports Complex being not only litter free, but well presented and well maintained. The only littered sites were the two recycle facilities – the one at Market Square was moderately littered and the one at Dunnes Stores was a deemed a serious litter problem.
Cllr Nolan said the positive report is a ‘great boost for tourism’, but added that the council could not rest on its laurels and has already put aside money in this year’s budget for street-cleaning and litter-awareness programmes.