Sligo cleans up in anti-litter 'contest'

Waterford judged our cleanest city but Carlow, Clonmel & Ballymun told they need to scrub up

- BY DANNY DE VAAL

SLIGO is the cleanest town in Ireland, while Dublin's north inner city was the dirtiest, a survey has revealed.

The findings, released by the group Irish Business Against Litter, evaluated 40 spots around the country to find a winner.

Leixlip, Westport, Monaghan and Tullamore all made the top five, with previous winner Naas dropping to 13th.

The worst offenders were Carlow, Clonmel, Cork’s northside, Ballymun in Dublin, Ballybane in Galway’s inner city, and Dublin’s north inner city.

Despite the poor ranking, none were deemed “seriously littered” and the north inner city had shown improvement.

Judges also declared the number of towns deemed clean last year rose to 28. Limerick’s Galvone, Mahon in Cork and Tallaght, South Dublin were among the urban areas given a clean status.

An Taisce, who conduct the surveys on behalf of IBAL, heaped praise on Sligo for its consistently strong performance.

Spokesman Conor Horgan said: “Sligo has come such a long way from back in 2007 when it was bottom of our rankings, and labelled a litter blackspot.”