Killarney and Tralee have had contrasting fortunes in the latest Irish Business Against Litter Survey of 40 towns and cities.
It shows Killarney “cleaner than European norms”, and rising to 4th position, but Tralee again “moderately littered” in 28th spot.
A fall in plastic bottles and cans on our streets, brought about by the Deposit Return Scheme, was not enough to reduce overall litter levels in Ireland last year according to the survey.
The An Taisce report says it was an excellent result for Killarney.
It says that with so many top ranking sites, there are a few which deserve a mention including the Car Park at Killarney Outlet Centre, Open space, off Rock Road / St. Margaret’s Road - which it describes a lovely expanse of greenery with recent planting / enhancement works and Main Street.
The survey found the latter wasn’t just very good with regards to litter but is well presented and maintained and that there were no heavily littered sites surveyed in Killarney.
The report for Tralee found that Tralee again fell short of clean status.
However, IBAL state it is good to see and hear about the work of Tralee Tidy Towns and local business such as JRI America staff members took part in clean up at Tralee Train Station.
The adjudicators say not much effort is required for some of the moderately littered sites to get the top litter grade.
Improvements were noted at Daly’s Lane where they say the overall impression was much enhanced.
The streetscape along The Mall was very good with lovely planter boxes, wooden seating, and signage and the report says this site was very much deserving of the top litter grade.
However it says that despite the efforts of both train station staff and Tralee Tidy Towns, Casement Train Station was heavily littered, with significant accumulations of food related items near the coffee kiosk / at the base of the shrubbery.
