Praise for Queen Maeve Square as Sligo receives top marks in latest litter survey

Irish Independent

2 days ago

The survey reveals Sligo is again 'Cleaner than European Norms' and rising to 6th spot in the ranking of 40 towns and cities across Ireland.
The An Taisce report for Sligo stated: 'A superb result for Sligo, with 8 of the 10 sites surveyed achieving the top grade. These included the N4 Ray MacSharry/Joe Banks Approach Road, Doorly Park/playground, Bring Facility at Connaughton Road and O'Connell Street – these sites were not just good with regards to litter by freshly presented and maintained.
"A lovely new addition to the town of Sligo is Queen Maeve Square – this has been attractively laid out and was looking very well,' the report said.
ON the downside however, the report points out that the most heavily littered site surveyed in Sligo was Adelaide Street Car Park.
"Not only was it heavily littered but general maintenance appeared to be lacking.'
The report goes on to say that as a general observation, there was plenty of evidence of Tidy Towns Murals at many of the sites surveyed and within Sligo town generally.
Overall, two-thirds of towns were clean, which was up on 2024. Naas was once again top of the ranking of 40 towns and cities, ahead of Ennis and Killarney. Only 4 areas were branded littered or seriously littered – the lowest number in 5 years. Both Dublin and Cork city centres have improved in advance of the peak season for visitors.
'It is encouraging to see that our main city centres – Dublin and Cork – have improved as we welcome summer visitors to our country. Clean streets are imperative, given the challenges facing Ireland as a high-cost destination,' says IBAL's Conor Horgan
One year on from the introduction of the Deposit Return Scheme, plastic bottles and can litter is down 50% on previous levels but was still found in 20% of the 500-plus sites surveyed across the country.
"We hope that the scheme will see the disappearance of this litter, but statistics so far do not bear this out. Cans and plastic bottles are far from a rare sight on our streets and in our hedgerows," says Mr Horgan.
'While the prevalence of coffee cups on the streets remains stubbornly high, there was a fall-off in disposable vape litter. The UK and Northern Ireland outlawed disposable vapes earlier this month and a ban here is likely in the coming months,' said the report.
The survey found the main streets of towns to be generally clean, as were heritage and amenity sites. Residential areas, bus and train stations and recycle facilities were most likely to be littered.