Ireland’s Cleanest Town Has Been Named

Longford has been named Ireland's cleanest town in a Dublin ceremony this week. Forty Irish towns and cities were examined in the annual Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) survey, with the midland town coming out on top, beating off competition from  Drogheda, Dún Laoghaire, Dungarvan, and Kilkenny for the title. The group deems three-quarters of the area surveyed as being clean compared to European norms, however this is a drop of five per cent compared to 2014, according to the Irish Times. Although no towns were deemed "litter blackspots", Farranree in Cork was named as Ireland's only seriously littered town. Speaking about the results, IBAL's Conor Horgan said:

“After a decade of year-on-year improvement, it is disappointing to see the very high standards achieved by towns slip in a number of cases,” he said.

“We may be witnessing the effect of the disappearance of town councils, or we may be getting slightly complacent. At the same time, we can say the great majority of our towns are clean. Also, it is heartening to see the problem city areas getting better — if only slowly."