Howth sweeps up cleanest town award

THE Dublin seaside town of Howth is celebrating being named as the cleanest place in Ireland.

It was named the outright winner in the annual Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) award, announced at a ceremony in the Conrad Hotel yesterday.

Joan Maher, deputy mayor of Howth, said all concerned “were over the moon” and she praised local authority workers and volunteers for their efforts.

Ms Maher said Fingal county manager David O’Connor was “like the cat who licked the cream” and deserved it for the work he had put in.

Mr O’Connor was also praised by IBAL chairman Dr Tom Cavanagh.

“He wanted to make his area the cleanest part of Ireland and he has been true to his word. Next year his task will be even more difficult for he wants to clean up Blanchardstown.”

The latest results are a startling reversal of seven years ago when IBAL initiated the anti-litter league programme.

Back then, 60% of towns were classified as “litter blackspots”.

The current list shows 36 out of 55 towns are “litter-free” compared with only two when the survey began in 2002.

Dr Cavanagh’s home town of Fermoy, Co Cork, came second in the competition.

However, he was critical about other local authorities in his native county for not doing enough to tackle the litter issue.

He praised Tallaght for putting in a serious effort to clean itself, but added that if Tallaght could manage it, he couldn’t understand why Cork City Council and Cobh Town Council were not up to the job.

Cork was voted the dirtiest city in Ireland and Cobh the dirtiest town.

Mayor of Cobh, Councillor John Mulvihill, said he took exception to the marking and claimed it was unfair to label his town the dirtiest in Ireland.

The survey revealed Galway as Ireland’s cleanest city, with Limerick and Waterford cities also litter-free.

Dr Cavanagh said he was delighted to hear Junior Environment Minister Tom Kitt saying he would urge local authorities to keep their areas cleaner.

IBAL continues to highlight chewing gum as a particularly “obstinate and unique source of litter, given the heavy cost of removing it.

“With the agreement with the gum industry up for review in the next few months, it is finally time for the Government to bite the bullet on a gum levy,” Dr Cavanagh said.

“We should ask ourselves why we even allow the marketing of a product that is destined to end up stuck to our streets, furniture, bins, school desks and many other places. Chewing gum costs millions to remove and at the very least the industry should be made pay for that,” he added.

Dr Cavanagh said Irish Business Against Litter believes a gum tax would give an incentive to manufacturers to introduce biodegradable chewing gum that is kinder to the landscape.