By Michelle Crawley
MULLINGAR has climbed its way up the ranking of the latest Irish Businesses Against Litter (IBAL) survey, shedding its moderately littered status to be deemed ‘clean to European norms’.
The Westmeath County town ranked 30th of 40 towns and cities surveyed across the country, yet despite a poor ranking, has managed to improve on last year’s dismal performance, when the town was branded a “a littered town”, coming in 39th out of 42 towns and cities surveyed.
WELCOME
IMPROVEMENT
This year’s marked improvement has been welcomed by Brian Reidy, Chairman of Mullingar Tidy Towns Committee, who told Topic that the group are “reasonably happy” with the result. “There are issues no doubt that need to be worked on but we are happy to have improved.
We are pleased that we are conforming to European norms. Thanks must go to Westmeath County Council who are working closely with us and together we have a plan in place.
We are happy to know that we are going in the right direction. Obviously we are not there yet but we are getting there and we welcome the improvement,” he stated.
In the report carried out by an An Taisce surveyor, over half the sites in town achieved the top litter grade and noted that the N52 Dundalk approach road and Athlone approach road were in very good condition.
CANAL
The canal side walk also got a special mention as much improved, and Brian Reidy was particularly happy with the remarks about the canal which had been a problem area this time last year.
The canal pathway had been extremely littered last summer and a lot of work has taken place during the course of the year to improve the walkway.
LITTERED SITES
However, it was just two seriously littered sites which managed to bring down the town’s overall ranking – the exterior of Mullingar Railway Station and the Recycle Facilty at Bennett Car Park. The Mullingar Tidy Towns chairman expressed his surprise that the railway station, who some years back won a Tidy Town’s Landscape Award, was given a bad ranking by the surveyor.
EXCELLING NEIGHBOURS
Unfortunately, Mullingar didn’t fare as well as its neighbouring counterparts in the latest league, with both Athlone and Tullamore excelling with ‘cleaner than European norms’ statuses. Tullamore, in particular, had an excellent showing, coming 6th overall, with Athlone closely behind in 12th position. The An Taisce report praised Athlone for improving on its two previous results and also gave special mention to the approach roads which received the top litter grade and make a ‘positive first impression’ of the town.
The report also singled out the park beside Golden Island Shopping Centre for its presentation and the Recycling Centre for its upkeep and tidy appearance.
