Navan fourth from bottom in litter league

Navan was placed fourth from the bottom in the most recent survey by the Irish Business against Litter League, the results of which were announced on Monday.

The town was dubbed "littered" by the judges who said that over all there has been a continued rise in litter levels across the country.

Particular mention was made of St Patrick's Park which the judges said suffered from “a very large dumping problem."

Navan's poor showing in this current survey is a far cry from this time last year when it was in 17th place and considered "clean to European norms."

By last October, it had fallen to 31st place out of 40 and dubbed "moderately littered."

Kilkenny came out on top in the most recent survey and Drogheda and Cavan were in 21st and 23rd places respectively with both described as "moderately littered."

It was the second nationwide litter survey by business group since the Covid-19 pandemic, and it revealed a continued rise in litter levels across the country, with further increases in PPE and coffee cup litter in particular.

For the first time in 13 years, fewer than half of the towns surveyed were deemed clean.

Senator Shane Cassells was very concerned at the results.

"Coming third from bottom is a massive regression for the town and the issue isn’t being tackled,” he said.

“There is also a big regression in standards across a number of big towns and we are reaping the rewards of abolishing town councils.

“I truly believe that the fact there is not a Town Clerk in the Town Hall anymore,who goes out and walks the streets and sees what needs to be done has hurt big towns like Navan very badly.

“The judges are not just looking at whether the paper is taken off the ground. They specifically praised Kilkenny and scored them highly because of the presentation of their public spaces in the city.

“They are looking for more than basic cleanliness, which unfortunately we can’t even manage.

“We have invested in public spaces across Navan and are continuing to do so but there is nobody looking at the continued maintenance of these investments once they are in place and it is hurting us,” he said.