Athlone loses clean status for second time in latest litter survey

In what is a major blow to the efforts of tidy towns volunteers in Athlone, the town has lost its clean status in the latest survey conducted by business group Irish Business Against Litter ((IBAL).

The presence of what was described by IBAL as four “heavily littered sites” on the day of inspection, including John Broderick Street; Paradise Row and the corner of Southern Station road and the Ballymahon Road, has resulted in the town slipping into the “moderately littered” category.

In the space of six months, Athlone has dropped from 18th place in the IBAL rankings to 32nd place, which is one of its poorest showings in recent times. The town was ranked in 18th place (Clean to European Norms) out of the 40 Irish towns and cities surveyed by IBALin June of last year.

At the end of 2022, the town was ranked in 16th place by IBAL, but it fell to 22nd place in 2023, and a further three places to 25th in the final survey that year. The last time the town lost its clean status was at the end of 2024 when it dropped to number 26 in the litter standings and was deemed to be “moderately littered.”

Inspectors from An Taisce, who carry out the litter survey on behalf of IBAL, said the four heavily littered sites observed on the day of their visit to Athlone will “need to be addressed” if the town it to move back up in the rankings.

However, they found the Dublin Gate Street/Church Street area of the town to be “very freshly presented” and deserving of the top litter grade A. They also commented favourably on a vacant property at Southern Station Road which has shown “notable improvement” from a previous IBAL survey when it was heavily littered. “This time around it was very much deserving of the top litter grade” they said.

Read full report in this week's print edition of the Westmeath Independent.