THE final litter survey of 2015 by Irish Business Against Litter shows Ennis has slipped to ‘moderately littered’, in 32nd spot among the 40 towns surveyed. The town was also 32nd in the 2014 rankings, but was Clean to European Norms.
There was a slight fall-off in the number of litter-free towns across Ireland, but no towns were deemed ‘litter blackspots’ and only one was ‘seriously littered’.
An Taisce’s report for Ennis stated, “Both the residential areas in Ennis got the top litter grade and Francis Street Bottle Bank has a novel design to prevent the accumulations of rubbish that so frequently occur at recycle facilities – clearly it is having the desired effect as it was a top ranking site.
The two most heavily littered sites in Ennis were Knox’s Bridge Amenity Scheme and St Anne’s School.”
Three quarters of the towns and cities surveyed by An Taisce on behalf of IBAL were found to be Clean to European Norms, a fall of 15% on last year. Likewise, the number of towns deemed Cleaner than European Norms fell from 17 to 12.
A native of Ennis, Colin McGann has been editor of The Clare Champion since August 2020. Former editor of The Clare People, he is a journalism and communications graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology.