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John Murphy, Fermoy Tidy Towns, who has expressed his disappointment with the latest IBAL table, showing Fermoy to be in 24th place. Photo: Eoin Scanlon

Fermoy’s standings in the latest Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) survey have dropped significantly, from tied 11th following the final 2013 judging, down to 24th.

The town also lose the tag of ‘Cleaner than European norms’, achieved by 18 of the 40 towns and cities monitored. Overall 75 per cent, including Fermoy, were deemed to be as clean or cleaner than their European counterparts.

Fermoy topped the table as Ireland’s cleanest town in 2006, but having remained in the top three for the following two years, dropped to 27th in 2009. Having reversed this slide in recent years, Fermoy Tidy Towns activist John Murphy said he is ‘concerned’ the town is slipping again, and admitted that Fermoy ‘has a litter problem’.

BETTER CO-ORDINATION

“I’m glad in one sense to stay up with the European norm, but I’m concerned that we are slipping, and really we don’t want to slip out of these norms", he told The Avondhu this week.

“We need to have a good look at it (the report), we have to compliment those working on improving the town, but we need more co-ordination with this effort,” he said.

Mr Murphy emphasised that many groups throughout the town were doing good work to enhance its image, he paid particular tribute to the numerous hanging baskets lining Patrick Street and MacCurtain Street, but said a meeting of those concerned must be arranged to work on the problems that exist.

“We need to get Fermoy back up again, but unless we work together we’re at nothing at all,” he said.

He added that employment schemes such as FAS and TUS could be utilised to reduce the amount of litter on the streets in the town.

TIME OF TRANSITION

PRO of Fermoy Tidy Towns, Tadhg O’Donovan, recognised that while the ongoing Flood Relief Works impacted on the low standings, it didn’t take away from the disappointment, ‘particularly for those that would be closely associated with these projects’.

He said the main thing is ‘you stay in line with the European norms’, and that the ultimate aim of the survey is to ensure that every town was achieving or at least would aspire to meet the European norms, which is ‘always our primary concern’.

“During the year now on a number of occasions we could see we weren’t having as effective a campaign as we’d have liked to have had, but again we see that the town is going through a transition period at the moment," he commented.

“Hopefully in the not too distant future that will have finished, then of course we’ll be going back to the overall strategy that we have, we’re in the process of drawing up another five year plan,” he said.

Mr O’Donovan added: “Once we’re in a position to implement that - we won’t be until these development works will be completed - then we’ll be in a position to attain the former glory that we did have in the past.”

Kilkenny once again topped the table, while Cavan and Killarney in Kerry completed the top three. The survey found that sweet papers were by far the most common form of litter, followed by cigarette butts, fast food wrappers and chewing gum.

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