Litter league shows Trim plummeting in rankings

The latest survey from the Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) had a shock result for Trim, which fell 38 positions in the competition and has been deemed to be 'littered' by the judge. Navan retained its litter-free status finishing in 24th position, while new entrant Ashbourne was also deemed 'clean to European norms' and finished 32nd out of the 60 towns and cities surveyed by An Taisce on behalf of IBAL. In the report on Trim, the judge said: 'There were just three top ranking sites out of a total of 10 surveyed - and only one of these was an approach road. One approach road was a litter blackspot - the Longwood approach. This was by far the most heavily littered site surveyed in Trim. The majority of sites were moderately littered - a more thorough and sustained approach to cleaning and general maintenance could easily address this.' Town manager Kevin Stewart admitted to being 'puzzled' by the results and said he did not feel that Trim had suddenly become a dirty town. He said: 'We are somewhat puzzled and we will certainly be studying the report closely to see where we have fallen down; to lose our litter-free status and fall to 54th in one go. I don"t have any sense that all of a sudden Trim is a dirty town.' Mr Stewart acknowledged that the council had to cut back on overtime and that this had had affected weekend cleaning and questioned whether the judging had been carried out at the weekend. He said: 'We have always enjoyed high placing in Trim and made a big deal of it and we are not going to hide when we finish in a low place. 'If nothing else, it is a lesson not to take it for granted. We will look closely and see what caused it and what we can do. We are keen to get our litter-free status back which we were very proud of.' Brian Heffernan, chairperson of Trim Tidy Towns committee, said that people could not understand the result. He said that Ennis was deemed the dirtiest town one year and went on to win the Tidy Towns competition the same year. 'I don"t feel it reflects the true position. People are always telling us Trim is one of the cleanest towns in Ireland and we won the Meath County Council anti-litter league just three weeks ago.' Mr Heffernan said the Tidy Towns people are out every weekend but admitted their work is becoming more challenging because the council"s outdoor staff are no longer working weekends because of cuts. He is calling for the outdoor staff to be allowed work weekends again and said that it is especially needed around the castle. 'There are a lot of people picnicking around the castle. We empty the bins three times a day at weekends but it is still difficult to keep on top of it,' he said. Mr Heffernan added that the committee had spent four hours taking down plastic ties from election posters in the town. He said that the posters are being taken down but the ties were being left behind and they filled a full refuse bag with these ties. In the IBAL survey, Navan scored well with seven of the 10 sites surveyed receiving the top litter grade, including all of the four approach roads. The report commented that the shopping centre was the most heavily littered site surveyed and that it was let down by heavy levels of litter at the entrance. The report on Ashbourne stated: 'This is the first time that Ashbourne has been included in IBAL Anti-Litter Survey. Seven out of the 10 sites surveyed got the top litter grade and this included three approach roads. 'These sites were not just clear of litter but very well-maintained. The fourth approach road was from Ratoath - it was characterised by heavy levels of a wide variety of food-related litter. The main shopping street was also seriously littered - particularly with food-related litter which had become trapped at the base of the ornamental trees,' the judge added.