THE first post-lockdown survey by Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) shows Ennis again in third position in the ranking of 40 areas nationwide.

While the majority of surveyed towns have cleaned up over the past 12 months, litter in the country’s main cities has worsened to levels not seen in ten years.

Portlaoise emerged as cleanest town. The study found no fall-off in PPE litter across the country.

The An Taisce report for Ennis stated, “Another excellent showing for Ennis, cementing its position among the cleanest towns in the country. There were no heavily littered sites.

Woohoo… Ranking THIRD NATIONALLY in the @IrishLitter IBAL survey. Well done to all our volunteers and @ClareCoCo staff 👍🚮♻️@GreenerClare @SuperValuIRL @TidyTownsIre @mrstidytowns @ClareEcho @RTENationwide https://t.co/mFZ9MsqNnB

— Ennis Tidy Towns (@EnnisTidyTowns) October 18, 2021

There was plenty of repaving of the town centre sites (e.g., Parnell Street, see below), including many of the laneways off the main shopping streets – these laneways looked great.

Despite ‘works’ taking place at Tim Smythe Park and Abbey Street Car Park, they didn’t impact in any negative way on the litter situation – these sites were particularly freshly presented and maintained. Top-ranking sites included Clare Museum environs and Abbey Street – both were spotless.”

The number of areas deemed clean by An Taisce, who carry out the survey on behalf of IBAL, rose from 17 to 23.

In all, 68% of towns showed an improvement on last year. Portlaoise, which was at the very foot of the table back in 2010, topped the rankings, ahead of Leixlip and past winner Ennis.