Longford registers improvement in IBAL league

Since 2002, Irish Business Against Litter has commissioned An Taisce to carry out litter surveys of the main towns and cities according to international standards.

The latest report commends the county town's efforts saying: “A solid performance for Longford, with half of the sites surveyed getting the top litter grade.”

Longford is regarded as 'Clean to European Norms' and rises two places in the IBAL Anti-Litter League rankings, moving up the league from 27th place.

Five of the 10 sites surveyed in the towns achieved an A grade, with four others receiving a B or B+ grade. The only Grade C was Harbour Point.

In respect of Harbour Point the survey said: “This town centre residential development was by far the most heavily littered site surveyed in Longford.

“There was a persistent litter presence, most obviously alcohol cans, sweet wrappers and cigarette butts with lower levels of coffee cups, plastic bottles, paper and cardboard. The grass / shrubbery area was in need of maintenance.”

Over 90% of towns surveyed were deemed clean, compared with just 28% of city areas.

Speaking on the results Michael Keenan, Chair of Longford Tidy Towns, believes it is a good result for the town: “Longford has done well in this survey. It's a survey of 40 towns, there are two months between when the survey was done and when it's released.

“It doesn't refer to the current condition of the town. It is a sample, it was carried out on April 6 and reflects the conditions on that date.”

Michael says there are clear positives in it: “Unlike some IBAL surveys in the past I think it's a reasonably fair snapshot. It acknowledges that there have been improvements.”

The results of the final IBAL litter survey of 2022 were published last January and the An Taisce report for Longford expressed concern over the “heavily littered main shopping street” resulting in the town falling twenty-two places, from the 5th position it held in the summer of '22 to 27th by the end of the year.

In this survey the majority of Ireland’s towns were found to be clean, but two-thirds of city areas are still littered.

An Taisce, who carry out the surveys for IBAL, commented the “solid performance” for Longford, with the top litter grade being awarded to the car park at Albert Reynolds Peace Park, Mall Walk and Longford Library, the latter getting “a special mention” for being “much improved on previous IBAL surveys”.

The report said: “Some sites just missed the top litter grade e.g., Bring Facility at Market Square and Longford Bus / Train Station.

“The most heavily littered site surveyed was the residential area of Harbour Point.” Set up in 1996, Irish Business Against Litter is an alliance of companies sharing a belief that continued economic prosperity, notably in the areas of tourism, food and direct foreign investment, is contingent on a clean, litter-free environment.

Conor Horgan of IBAL stressed the importance of resourcing litter initiatives: “With cleaning schedules normalised and PPE litter not a major factor, we can no longer look to Covid as an excuse for littered city streets.

“Now is the time to assign a new priority to litter, with concrete, resourced actions. In the absence of this, things will not get better.”