A NAAS Town Councillor is seeking a meeting with the Irish Business against Litter (IBAL) following the designation of Naas as the third dirtiest town in their recent results.
Cllr Alan O’Kelly told the Kildare Nationalist that he had written to IBAL to seek the meeting. “I haven’t heard back from them yet so I will be following my letter up with a phone call. I want to know what methodology they are using to see how they are coming up with the result they have and how we can improve in Naas.
“I feel that without knowing that we are taking shots in the dark. Results like this undermine the good work that is being done by residents associations, community organisations and Naas Town Council. This is not about giving out giving out to IBAL, it’s about understanding how they are doing it and how we as a town can improve.”
The IBAL report described Naas as being ‘seriously littered’ and ranked the town in 51st place out of 53 surveyed. The 2009 report had said that Naas was ‘littered’ and the 2010 result represented a fall in standards for the town. The report said that this was a “very disappointing result, the worst of the Kildare towns. Half of the sites surveyed in Naas have a serious litter problem, the highest percentage in the entire survey”.
The report went on to add that many of the sites surveyed were characterised by alcohol related litter, graffiti and general neglect in maintenance. “Much of the litter at Abbey Road on the mound was ‘old’ indicating a lack of thorough cleaning for quite some time; the alley beside 1613 Market House was badly let down by a derelict building; West Gate was characterised by alcohol related litter and the Carlow / Waterford approach Road had heavy levels of food related litter.”
Each of the aforementioned areas were characterised as having a serious litter problem. Indeed the only positives for Naas were that North Main Street, Poplar Square and Harbour View were described as being ‘clean to European Norms’. The Rathcoole and Newbridge approach Roads were described as being ‘moderately littered’.
Dr Tom Cavanagh, Chairman of IBAL commented on how the position of towns could be improved. “To keep on the right side of the law, as well as to show corporate citizenship and community spirit, businesses should look to clean up outside their premises, including their car parks, twice daily. This would have an enormous impact on our streetscapes in one fell swoop and reduce local authority cleaning costs.”
Meanwhile, Kildare citizens are invited to submit photos by mobile phone of litter blackspots in their neighbourhood as part of a “litter twitter” campaign to alert local authorities to litter-ridden areas locally. “This is the perfect technology through which people can highlight areas that urgently need cleaning up,” explained Dr Cavanagh.
Photos can be emailed to litterspotter.2010@twitpic.com and IBAL can be followed at twitter.com/litterspotter.
Cllr Rioghnagh Bracken of Naas Tidy Towns said the delay on the survey needs to be highlighted. “I rang up IBAl myself to find out when the survey was carried out and they came back to me to say it had been done on 2 March. When there is such a delay with the report there should be a disclaimer to say when the survey was carried out. There has been a lot of good work carried out, particularly in some of the areas mentioned in the report, such as St Ita’s, The Harbour and the Newbridge Road and I feel it’s important that that is highlighted.”