Three ‘heavily littered’ areas drag town in Tipperary down in latest IBAL survey
Despite one town in Tipperary remaining “moderately littered,” it has moved up the rankings of Ireland’s cleanest towns.
The latest Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) anti-litter listings were released earlier this week, with Clonmel ranking in 28th place out of 40 towns and cities surveyed.
Despite still being considered “moderately littered,” this year’s result represents an improvement on Clonmel’s ranking from last year, when it sat in 36th place.
Five spots in the town earned top marks, however, three heavily littered areas brought down the overall result.
The Bring Facility at West Gate Car Park, the Dungarvan Approach Road and St Stephen’s Grove were the worst ranking areas this time around, with the former two also being heavily littered in 2025, with little change since then, IBAL said.
Clonmel’s main thoroughfare, O’Connell Street was “was looking very well, both in terms of presentation and litter,” they said.
The report said O’Connell St was “an exceptionally clean main shopping street environment, with some lovely historic buildings at either end.
“Clearly a careful eye is kept on the numerous vacant and closed down premises - there was no litter directly associated with them.
“Showgrounds Shopping Centre was spotless and Mulcahy Park is a lovely park environment with walking paths, a playground, and a sensory play area,” the report added.
Inspectors criticised the Dungarvan Approach Road, describing parts of it as heavily littered and suggesting some rubbish had been left in place for a considerable period. They also noted that an anti-litter sign was positioned perpendicular to traffic, “rendering it almost useless.”
The Bring Bank Facility in the West Gate Car Park had broken glass, but it was the “items ‘stuffed’ to the rear,” that brought down the grade.
“Is this area part of the cleaning regime?” they asked.
The Showgrounds Shopping Centre, Mulcahy Park, the Cashel Approach Road and the Riverwalk all got top marks, with the inspector saying that the Cashel approach was “an exceptionally freshly presented route into Clonmel, with all elements in excellent condition.”
Nationally, the cleanest town was Sligo, with no town or city across Ireland ranking in the “seriously littered” or “litter blackspot” categories.
Conor Horgan from IBAL said that Ireland now has fewer littered areas than at any time in the last 25 years.
“The job’s not done, but across the country, local authorities appear to have upped their game when it comes to tackling persistently littered sites and dumping in our towns and cities,” he said.