It’s claimed the presence of two prominent eyesores are holding Ennis back from achieving a top national cleanliness ranking.
It comes as the county town has slumped to 19th in the latest Irish Business Against Litter League, which is among its lowest ever results.
Ennis now lies 19th in the IBAL table and is classed as ‘Clean to European Norms’.
Compared to this time last year, it’s a dramatic drop of seventeen places, when the county town was judged to be the second cleanest in the country.
On this occasion, two derelict sites in particular, namely the Certa Filling station on the Tulla Road and the Analog Building on Bank Place were noted as prone to dumping by inspectors, notching C and C+ grades respectively and contributed to Ennis’ descent.
IBAL Spokesperson Conor Horgan says there’s no reason the town cannot return to the top of the table if these issues are addressed.
Elsewhere, the Clare Road, Connolly’s Villas, Clare Museum and its environs, Abbey Street Car Park and O’Connell Street all received ‘A’ grades in the report.
While the River Fergus Walkway, Dunnes Stores Deposit Return Bank and the Market Square all achieved a B+ grade, with discarded wooden pallets, excessive amounts of chewing gum and discarded bottles and cans among the contributing factors.
Mayor of Ennis and Ennis Tidy Towns Chair Mary Howard says they’re keen to tackle the issues.
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