Time for Navan to wake up to litter problem

For the past four years, Meath Tourism has been building up its 'Spirits of Meath' festival, based on the legend that Halloween originated at the ancient Hill of Ward site, Tlachgta, near Athboy, where the ancient Celts kindled the sacred fire at the festival of Samhain. The tourism body has been putting huge efforts into attracting visitors to the county for the weeks leading up to, and surrounding, the October bank holiday weekend and Halloween. And many venues and event organisers around the county have come on board and put on marvellous horror displays and attractions for families and visitors. But this October bank holiday weekend, visitors were treated to a horror vision of another sort. The state of the Market Square in Navan with litter and all sorts of debris from the night before was a sight to behold. But a sorry one. It may seem an over-reaction to treat a littering problem on the streets as a weighty subject deserving to receive editorial treatment on these pages, particularly when there are issues such as the Children's Referendum, the Navan Hospital Campaign and ongoing road deaths, but it is an issue that needs to be dealt with and taken just as seriously. The current Government is placing great weight on its plans for The Gathering 2013, bringing hundreds of visitors from abroad to this country - is this what we are bringing them home to see? 'Dear old dirty Dublin' could just be extended to become 'dear old dirty Ireland' . Indeed, in the most recent survey carried out by the Irish Business Against Litter campaign, Navan was almost at the bottom of the list, at number 38, 'moderately littered', just five spots away from the bottom marker, north inner city Dublin. And councillors and officials at the subsequent council meeting expressed shock at this. Possibly they have being going around the town with their heads in the clouds. It is a difficult issue to tackle. But it is one the businesses and local authorities, and indeed the people of Navan, if they have any pride in their town, will have to face up to. It is not the first bank holiday weekend, or even ordinary weekend, that this type of severe littering has occurred. Many businesses don't see it, because they are not open on a bank holiday Monday. Neither do many of the businesses from where much of the litter originates - the fast food stores, which won't open until the following evening or late the following night. Of course, they cannot be responsible for what happens packaging after it leaves their shop, particularly when their late night customers have spent a night in a local nightclub and may not consider finding the nearest litter bin a priority. This is where there is a need for a coming together of businesses, tourism interests, and the local authority on this. It is interesting to note that those towns that do have some sort of pride in their place have very active Tidy Towns groups. The most obvious of these is Trim. Earlier this year, Trim was named as Ireland's cleanest town in the survey of 53 towns and cities carried out by An Taisce for IBAL. Trim has been litter-free since 2005 but this was the first time it won the competition. Trim was also one of nine towns to collect a Sustained Excellence award for being litter-free for five years in a row. An Taisce, which conduct the litter surveys, commented in its report on Trim: "The hard work has paid off and the citizens should appreciate what has been achieved. All sites surveyed got the top litter grade. The approach routes were particularly well-presented and this very high standard was sustained for all sites surveyed in Trim." Of course, Trim and Navan are two different towns - Trim with its heritage status and impressive historical buildings and monuments - but the town council in Navan has been to the forefront in trying to make the town pleasing to the eye with its new sculptures, landscaping, and streetscaping, and it has many fine commercial buildings. Some years back in Trim, agreement was reached with fast food outlets on opening hours and these businesses were brought on board the whole litter awareness campaign. It is time for the people of Navan - citizens, councillors, officials, and businesses, including the nightclubs and fast food outlets, to stand up and say 'enough is enough, we are not going to accept this desecration of our town', and come together to combat it. Because to ignore it would say more about the town and its people than anything.