Cork is failing to keep pace as litter levels fall nationwide.
That's the finding of the latest Irish Business Against Litter survey, which examines 40 towns and cities nationwide.
Midleton has been declared Cleaner than European Norms and is in 13th spot however Cork's Northside, Cork City centre and Mahon are rated as "littered" rank 35th, 36th and 37th respectively.
Overall two-thirds of the 40 towns and cities surveyed were found to be clean.
The An Taisce report for Midleton stated:
With seven out of the ten sites surveyed getting the top litter grade, Midleton has ranked very highly. These included all three approach roads, the residential area of Willowbank, The Main Street and Midleton Retail Park – the latter was exceptionally well presented and maintained with abundant planting throughout. The Town Park / Midleton Lodge and Market Green Car Park could easily be top ranking with just a little extra care – the park environment was a large green expanse with plenty of space devoted to ‘Managed for Wildlife’. By far the most heavily littered site surveyed was the Clothing Bank at Distillery Road Car Park – it wasn’t just casually littered but larger items had been deposited beside the clothing bin units – this was in sharp contrast to all the other sites surveyed in Midleton.
The An Taisce report for Cork City stated:
With just 5 top ranking sites out of 25 surveyed, Cork City is very much placed in the bottom quarter of the rankings. That said, a few sites deserve a special mention as they showed a notable improvement this time around: Sarsfield Road Roundabout, Wilton Road; ‘Headways’ at Carrigrohane Road; Lower John Street; St. Patrick’s Quay – all managed to shift from a low litter grade up to at least a Grade B status. This wasn’t the case for all the poorer ranking sites in 2021, with one of them deteriorating even further - Carmelite Place, Western Road. Other heavily littered sites included North Ring Road and N20 Commons Road.
The An Taisce report for Mahon stated:
Again, Mahon shows little improvement over previous surveys. There were still some seriously littered sites, such as the pedestrian link to Aldi off Ringmahon Road, Lakelands Crescent and the R852 Mahon Link Road. Ballinure Avenue was also quite poor. The residential area of Ashwood and Open Grounds at Mahon Point were both deserving of the top litter grade.
The An Taisce report for Cork Northside stated:
Around half of the sites surveyed in Cork North City were moderately littered with general scatterings of litter. Improving some of these sites would make a difference to the overall ranking. There was evidence of clean up / green area management ongoing during the survey. Perhaps some of the litter was obscured by vegetation which was at full summer growth in early June. It was noted in many instances that the litter was ‘long-lie’, indicating a lack of thorough cleaning for quite some time. Upper Fairhill wasn’t just casually littered but subject to small scale dumping, some of it ‘long-lie’. By far the most heavily littered site was Ballyvolane Road – it was again a litter blackspot with dumped items spreading across the site.
