Tralee has dropped four places to 25th in the Irish Business Against Litter rankings, and was declared ‘moderately littered’.
The study, conducted by An Taisce on behalf of Irish Business Against Litter, did give several areas in Tralee town the top litter grade.
It said, however, there were seriously littered sites with little improvement on previous surveys.
Five areas in Tralee were awarded the top mark from An Taisce; these were the Lee Riverside Walk, Lidl on the Castlemaine road, the Princes Street car park, Dan Spring Road, and the Deposit Return Scheme at Dunnes Stores.
An Taisce said the riverside walk was a lovely environment, while the car park on Princes Street was spotless despite an abundance of activity.
The Mall received a B+ grade, with the report noting it has been very attractively presented and maintained, is a lovely town centre environment, but is let down by very significant cigarette butt presence.
Three sites were classed as seriously littered; Casement station, Market Street, and Daly’s Lane, which is a short laneway between Boherbee and John Joe Sheehy Road.
An Taisce said the train station requires a more thorough approach to the cleaning regime, while Market Street had seen little improvement since it was last surveyed, with cigarette butts, vapes, and alcohol-related litter.
Daly’s Lane, aside from PT Motors which was spotless, had significant accumulations of alcohol-related litter, and a derelict site had become a magnet for litter there.
Chair of Tralee Tidy Towns, Brendan O’Brien, said he’s disappointed at the result but his team cannot enter private property and there is still much work to be done in relation to cigarette butts.
