Cavan slips in IBAL litter league

Cavan town continues to slide down the pecking order in the Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) league with the Ballyhaise approach route coming in for serious criticism and described as "seriously littered" with much of the litter being attributed to the pick-up station for St. Patrick's College. However, Mayor of Cavan Town, Paddy O'Reilly, pointed out to The Anglo-Celt that while the town was placed in 18th spot in the league table, it was only six or eight points behind the overall winner. "The town has done exceptionally well," he said. The IBAL report claimed that there were several separate incidents of litter along the Ballyhaise Road. One area was beside the Maxol filling station; a second area was the pick-up station for St. Patrick's College, which had all sorts of litter scattered throughout, and there were no litter bins in this area. Cllr. O'Reilly expressed concern about the state of the Ballyhaise Road. "It came in for particular strong criticism but I'm delighted to say that is has been cleaned up in recent days." The derelict site close by has also been cleaned up, he added. "We have to put our heads together and generally improve these areas that require attention." Mayor O'Reilly pointed out that the new Cavan Tidy Towns Committee including Dessie Crossan, Tony Prunty and Tony Coyle among others have been doing a lot of good work around the town over the past number of weeks cleaning buildings and painting. The county town was described as "Clean to European norms" according to the latest results issued on Monday. It is a far cry from the results of recent years when Cavan was ranked second to Bray for the overall award in 2009 and the county town had topped the league in 2008. Near neighbours Longford came a very commendable second place but Monaghan, meanwhile, loses the accolade "Clean to European norms", and is now classed as "Littered" in 47th spot. An Taisce who compiled the report described Cavan's effort as "another good result". Cavan began in the IBAL Anti-Litter League as a black spot before going on to become the outright winner on two occasions. According to the report: "Well over half of the sites surveyed in Cavan get the top grade but unfortunately there was one bad site." The River Walk had sometimes being a littered site in previous IBAL Anti-Litter surveys, but not so this time around. From the early days when Cavan was a black spot, the report acknowledges: "It has been a remarkable change." IBAL chairman Tom Cavanagh expressed disappointment at the decrease in the number of litter-free towns but stressed that the overall results were positive. "The average score of all towns surveyed is now closer than ever to the European average," said Dr. Cavanagh. He claimed the loss of litter-free status for many towns was due to the neglect by local authorities of approach roads to town centres. The organisation also reminded business owners that they are legally responsible under the Litter Act for keeping the visible areas outside their premises free of litter at all times, regardless of its source. It also urged the government to introduce legislation which would only allow degradable gum to be sold in the Republic on the basis that litter from conventional gum is still a growing problem, especially as it can be stuck to footpaths for up to 25 years. The group has also launched a Twitter campaign in which members of the public are invited to submit photos by mobile phone of litter blackspots in their neighbourhood. The "litter twitter" campaign is designed to alert local authorities to litter-ridden areas. Photos can be emailed to litterspotter.2010@twitpic.com.