Cork city centre cleans up its act but northside 'seriously littered'

Cork city centre has cleaned up in a nationwide anti-litter ranking and is now rated as clean, but the northside — described as “seriously littered” — languishes near the foot of the latest league table published today.

The table, compiled by Irish Businesses Against Litter (IBAL) and based on inspections by An Taisce, places Naas in first position out of the 40 locations inspected.

Cork city centre is placed in 26th place, just ahead of Mahon. Both areas are ranked as “clean to European norms”.

Fermoy, a former winner, was in 32nd place, and is “moderately littered”. Cork’s northside was placed in the 39th spot, and is “seriously littered”.

No litter hotspots  

According to the report, Cork city centre was described as having “no litter hotspots and just two seriously littered sites”. Last year, it missed out on “clean to European norms” status as it had three sites with serious levels of litter. The Lord Mayor of Cork, councillor Dan Boyle, welcomed the trend of improvement in the city centre, but said that the area still faced “a journey to be the best we can be”.

“The biggest problem with litter is stopping those who throw things away in the belief that others will clean up after them,” said Mr Boyle.

“I’m hopeful that the success of Ballincollig Tidy Towns, as national winners, indeed the high standards of Tidy Towns groups across the city, will encourage higher standards.”

“We are the other people we expect to clean up after ourselves.”

The An Taisce judges reported that much-improved city centre sites included Kennedy Quay, Penrose Quay, William St, and Grenville Place, with judges saying that while they were “still not quite top-ranking, they were much better than in previous IBAL surveys”.

Top-ranking sites

“Examples of top-ranking sites were Fitzgerald Park, Patrick St (a commendable achievement), Shalom Park, and Mardyke Walk,” said the judges.

The An Taisce report for Mahon said the area had “seen huge progress in a short couple of years, when it was very much towards the bottom of the IBAL league”.

“This time around there were no litter blackspots and just two seriously littered sites. There have been extensive works over the last year, resulting in some lovely streetscapes, seating areas, planting etc.

“Two sites were the cleanest the surveyor had seen — Avenue de Rennes and Skehard Rd.”

Cork’s northside has experienced a further dip in its anti-litter performance as just four of 25 sites surveyed received the top grade.

“Even if some of the moderately littered sites improved, that could make a difference to the overall result,” the An Taisce report stated.

“Improvements were noted at Bring Centre, Aldi... and Fairhill Drive was much improved and very much deserving the top litter grade this time around.”

Littered

The three most littered sites included wasteground at Fairfield Meadows; a vacant site at North Monastery Rd; St Mary’s Rd and Gerald Griffin Avenue, No 7 Pophams Rd, and No 39 and 40 Cathedral Walk.

“The presence of four such heavily littered/ dumped upon sites and the dearth of top ranking sites will have impacted Cork North City’s overall ranking,” it was noted.

Cork North East ward Green Party councillor Oliver Moran said it was disappointing to see the low ranking for the northside again as it gave a “bad impression of the area”.

He called for more precise language to describe the areas as MacCurtain St and Lower Glanmire Rd, surveyed as part of the city centre, were actually on the northside and suggested more attention should be given to waste ground which was attracting dumping.

Sinn Féin Cork North Ward councillor Michelle Gould said dumping was a consequence of the privatisation of waste collection, and urged the council to take back bin collection.

“There is great work being done on the northside with groups like the Blackpool and Shandon Street Tidy Towns and others but we need more support,” she said.

“We need to get more groups up and running but the cleanliness of the city is the responsibility of Cork City Council.”