Clean towns don't just happen by accident

Council officials in Trim must have thought all their birthdays had come at once. On Monday's 'Morning Ireland' programme on RTE radio, with an average daily listenership of around 460,000, Dr Tom Kavanagh, the chairman of the Irish Business Against Litter organisation (IBAL), was speaking about the results of his organisation's latest anti-litter league initiative. It didn't seem to matter which city or town won - Trim, Meath's top heritage town, was singled out for honourable mention. If gongs were being handed out, the town got a Best in Show for its innovative moves on derelict buildings or businesses that have closed. They paint murals on walls, don't they? Take Swift's Gulliver, for instance. He featured in a 30-foot long mural along Spicer's wall on Watergate Street. While they were preparing for the Tidy Towns contest at the time (and they would be happy with a silver but "delighted" if they took gold), along comes Dr Kavanagh who fairly welled up with enthusiasm at the standard of the work being carried out in Trim. In the IBAL league, the town was rated 'clean to European norms', like many others. But that sort of cleanliness doesn't happen by accident. Trim Town Council means business when it goes about its street cleaning and, needless to say, it has the backing of a community determined to keep up its Heritage Town status, in particular the very active Trim Tidy Town committee whose members could be seen carrying out its voluntary work throughout the summer. Navan, in contrast, has had a more chequered history in the IBAL league, but has made major strides in recent years, moving from being 'littered' and 'moderately littered' in previous years to a status of 'clean to European norms' in more recent times, representing real effort on the part of the local town council and volunteers to keep the county town out iof the 'name and shame' bracket. There are some who might say that all this IBAL stuff doesn't mean very much and that most towns don't need a business organisation to tell them how to run the show. That's a pity in one way because the intention is to draw attention to the drawbacks in presenting our towns to the visitor, and to encourage communities to buy into the concept that clean and well-presented towns attract more visitors, more business, and are likely to encourage potential industrialists to settle with them rather than another town down the road which doesn't seem to care about its image. Just how seriously some city bosses take the IBAL litter surveys was demonstrated later on Monday when Dublin City Council officials tore strips off the organisation for its verdict on the city. Drawing attention to vacant commercial properties, ghost estates and derelict sites, Dr Kavanagh said: "Ireland cannot be deemed a clean destination for tourists if Dublin itself is not clean - and that doesn't just mean the city centre". IBAL inspectors reported that many of the blackspots in Dublin were "not just littered, but were suffering from long-term abuse and neglect". The council hit back, accusing IBAL of "misrepresenting" the facts and using "absurd" methodology. Of course, as Mandy Rice Davies once said, "they would say that, wouldn't they?" (for those too young to remember Ms Davies, try googling Profumo). IBAL certainly got one thing right about Dublin. The first thing tourists encounter as they leave Dublin Airport is a litter-strewn road. We don't know who is to blame for not keeping such a crucial area clean, the Dublin Airport Authority or Fingal County Council, but someone out there should extract their finger and get it cleaned up clean-up. First impressions tend to last with tourists. All of this slots in neatly with remarks made by GAA legend Mick O'Dwyer when he called on local communities to face down the recession by promoting their own areas. He made himself into a right Charlie by leading 108 Charlie Chaplin lookalikes on a walk of the promenade in Waterville, Co Kerry, in a promotion for the Charlie Chaplin Comedy Film Festival which was hosted by the Co Kerry village last weekend and of which 'Micko' was an ambassador. "What we need all over the country now is for people to get up and get promoting their areas," he said. Meath has its own showpiece sporting attraction this month, the Solheim Cup, reason enough for this county to show that it welcomes visitors with neat and clean towns and villages. Ireland, with its population of 4.58 million, has shown once again (for the umpteenth time) that it can stage events of international importance. Getting our streets clean is part of the effort, but an important one.