Cork city's northside gets best result yet in business litter league

Cork city’s northside has achieved its best ever result in the Irish Business Against Litter (Ibal) rankings, in what has been one of the city’s best overall showings.

The latest Ibal litter survey shows Cork’s northside has jumped eight places in the national litter league year-on-year, with the city centre and Mahon retaining their ‘Clean to European Norms’ status.

This time last year, the northside was deemed to be ‘seriously littered’, coming in 39th out of 40 places, behind only Dublin’s north inner city.

In January of this year, the northside had improved slightly to 37th place, and was described as ‘littered’, while the latest result sees it moving six places up the league table and described as being ‘moderately littered’.

The city centre has maintained its ‘Clean to European Norms’ ranking, jumping from 26th place last June to 17th this year, while Mahon is also ‘Clean to European Norms’, and has gone from 27th to 23rd on the table.

Praise for several parts  

The environmental organisation An Taisce, which surveys areas on behalf of Ibal, had praise for several parts of the northside, including Patrick’s Hill, Pope’s Quay, Shandon St, Middle Glanmire Rd, and the Old Youghal Rd.

However, the Mayfield and Hollymount industrial estates came in for criticism, as did the waste ground at Fairfield Meadows, where levels of dumping were described as “monumental”. 

In the city centre, An Taisce praised Lapp’s Quay and Horgan’s Quay as “lovely riverside environments, which were very much deserving of the top litter grade”. Patrick St also received top ranking.

Cork’s ongoing scourge of graffiti was noted, and “by far the most heavily littered site in Cork city” was Anderson’s Quay, while Bishop Lucey Park and Liberty St were also littered.

In its report on Mahon, An Taisce praised an “excellent result”, with Avenue de Rennes and the Skehard approach road described as deserving of the top litter grade, while Loughmahon Park came close.

Improved slightly

In County Cork, past winner Fermoy has improved slightly to 29th place from last June’s 32nd pace.

However, it is still deemed ‘moderately littered’, something which will be a bitter blow for the town’s dedicated Tidy Towns volunteers.

An Taisce said many sites in Fermoy had just missed the top litter grade, while by far the most heavily littered site in the town was the public car park and recycle facility, which it said had suffered both abuse and neglect.

Nationally, Sligo again topped the Ibal ranking, with Limerick city centre the only area branded ‘littered’.

No town or city included in the latest survey was deemed to be either ‘seriously littered’ or ‘a litter blackspot’.

Overall litter levels were on a par with last year, with 27 towns deemed clean. Sligo finished ahead of Monaghan and Leixlip, with Waterford — again Ireland’s cleanest city — in fourth spot.

Peak tourist season approaching

Conor Horgan of Ibal said that, with the peak season for tourist visitors approaching, there were fewer littered areas in the country than at any time over the past 25 years.

The study showed, he said, a low number of very heavily littered sites among the 500-plus sites surveyed, compared to previous years.

“The job’s not done, but across the country, local authorities appear to have upped their game when it comes to tackling persistently littered sites and dumping in our towns and cities,” Mr Horgan said.