Littering leads to Longford slipping to 27th in latest anti litter league rankings

“We are very disappointed”. The words of Longford Tidy Towns Chairperson Michael Keenan in the wake of a new anti-litter report which placed Longford in 27th place out of 40 towns nationwide.

The findings, contained in an Irish Business Against Litter League (IBAL), represented a sizable drop on the county town's fifth place finish in June.

The Tesco car park recycling bank, as was highlighted in last week's Leader, was one of three “seriously littered sites” which were identified by judges.

Longford town's Main Street and Library were two other areas that came in for particular criticism.

“It was the presence of three seriously littered sites which brings down the overall position,” read the report.

“In the experience of IBAL, it is unusual to see such a heavily littered main shopping street.

“There was a significant litter presence throughout, mostly food related, along with plastic ties on poles and alcohol cans.

“The Recycle Bank and Library also presented very poorly. The latter wasn’t just littered but the grounds were very poorly presented and maintained.”

What the IBAL Anti-Litter League report had to say about Longford

Nonetheless, local Cllr Seamus Butler said while the report's finer contents were disappointing, it was important to evaluate its publication in a broader context.

“I do believe it was a snapshot on the actual day and it was most probably a bad day (when report was compiled),” he said, adding Main Street and Ballymahon Street were predominantly litter free for the large part.

Cllr Butler said he remained hopeful concerted measures would be put in place to specifically target the bring bank facility beside Longford's county library.

He did, however, insist that despite Longford's insipid IBAL performance, all was not lost.

“It's probably a bit of a wake up call to make sure everything is done on a daily basis because you don't know what time these people (judges) are coming around.”

Cllr Butler, meanwhile , was at pains to stress IBAL was a survey whose sole focus was on litter, a category which accounted for at best “10 to 15 per cent” of marks allotted to urban centres under the country's Tidy Towns annual competition.