LESS than three years after it was named Ireland’s Top Tourism Town, by Fáilte Ireland, Tralee has slipped to the bottom seven of all towns and cities surveyed in the Irish Business Against Litter League, administered by An Taisce.
While Killarney finished in an impressive sixth place overall, Tralee was described as being “moderately littered” and the town plummeted to 34th position out of the 40 locations assessed. The judges found that there was a distinct shortage of litter-free sites with almost all areas inspected moderately littered.
The IBAL assessment complained of:
- Cigarette butts, chewing gum and sweet wrappers were obvious in The Square.
- They saw plastic bottles, coffee cups, cans and fast-food wrappers on the approach road from Dingle. Both sides of the road were somewhat littered and weeds were pronounced.
- There was a very definite litter presence along Rock Street, with a wide variety of food-related items, heavy levels of chewing gum and cigarette butts.
- It was quite striking along Rock Street how poor, cracked and uneven the footpath surfaces were.
- An untidy impression was created at the recycling facility at SuperValu, with litter items on the ground and plastic bags/boxes “deliberately stuffed” between the recycle units.
- One part of Milk Market Lane created a poor impression with weeds, uneven pathways, graffiti and less well presented buildings. There was a moderate level of litter throughout.
- A derelict site at Godfrey Place, currently used as a temporary car park, is a littered site and weeds were so pronounced around the perimeter that litter had begun to accumulate within the weeds.
- On Ashe Street, weeds were pronounced at the base of ornamental trees. Cigarette butts and chewing gum were the most common litter types with fast-food wrappers and sweet papers also present.
- The approach from Killarney was a moderately littered route with plastic bags, sweet papers and plastic bottles the most obvious litter with lower levels of coffee cups and fast-food wrappers.
It wasn’t all bad for Tralee, however, as the IBAL assessors were impressed by the great sense of openness and space at The Square with attractive paving underfoot and the bollards, ornamental trees, seating and bins in very good condition.
They said Pairc an Piarsaigh was a very good site with regard to litter. The grounds of the park were in very good order, with seating, bins, grass and planting, as well as a lush and green space which scored very well.
They noted an attractive ironwork gate entrance to Milk Market Lane and that uniform signage of the premises created a neat impression. Façade painting took the bare look off a long stretch of wall and art on an electricity box beside the entrance was colourful.
The assessors said the presentation of some parts of Denny Street is mixed but some parts were excellent with new paving, trees and colourful planting. They observed that the side of the road with hotels was definitely less littered than the other side of the road.
The paving along some of Ashe Street presented well and was in contrast to many of the other streets in Tralee which were old and cracked and uneven.
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