A FURIOUS Mayor Kevin Kiely is to invite Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) into City Hall to question them on when and on how many times their surveyors actually visited the city.
Commenting on Limerick city coming bottom of the cities and towns surveyed in a litter survey, the mayor claimed that some of the findings were questionable.
“The survey points out 16 black spots in the city when in actual fact, six of these are located in county Limerick.
“I have to be accountable as mayor and I’d be the first to admit if there is a problem with litter and how to tackle and better manage it, but I’ve driven around the city and quite honestly, I don’t know where these problems are”.
Speaking to the Limerick Post, the mayor said that the city council spends €2.7million annually in cleaning the city.
“Our cleaners are out on the streets at 5am each day, we have three full-time law enforcement officers and in 2009, introduced a number of initiatives – street washing, the binning of chewing gum and a competition before Christmas for the most attractive and clean shopfronts, as well as some €250,000 that was spent on cleanups in the regeneration areas.
“Since I was elected in June, I’ve been visiting areas in the city and have been very impressed with the overall cleanliness – actually at 3pm on Christmas Eve, City Hall got a phone call that there was rubbish left deposited after the Market finished. By 5am on Christmas Day, all that rubbish was taken away”.
The IBAL survey found that most Irish towns are litter free by normal European standards but that the majority of cities were littered, with Limerick coming bottom of the league.
Caroline Curley, director of services in City Hall, said she is disappointed with Limerick’s poor showing.
“I’m confused by their marking system – they investigated 19 areas, declaring only two as black spots, while last June they investigated 24 and identified three black spots, yet didn’t then identify us as a litter black spot”.
She also pointed out that the report noted that some of the approach roads which were found to be littered are the responsibility of Limerick County Council.
When contacted, the relevant spokesperson for Limerick County Council was not available for comment.
Confirming that there are 192 litter bins in the city, which are emptied each day, Ms Curley said the council works in co-operation with Limerick Chamber to enforce the litter laws against businesses. However, it emerges from the survey that IBAL is now considering that local authorities may not be the most effective bodies to control litter enforcement.
“Until we have a rethink of how litter enforcement is managed locally, the nationwide cleanup will never be complete – maybe the task should be taken away from local authorities altogether, as it is in some other countries – despite what the Litter Act says, local authorities are not compelling businesses to keep the visible areas inside their properties, such as car parks, forecourts, shrubberies, basements and pavements, clear of litter,” said Dr Tom Cavanagh, chairman of IBAL.
Upper William Street came in for particular criticism from IBAL.
