Tuam moves up in clean towns league

By TONY GALVIN TUAM has achieved the top rating of Clean to European Norm classification in the latest Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) survey and the town is now ranked as one of the cleanest in the country. There had been concerns that the disruption associated with the Big Dig might have lost the town points but a very active and committed Tidy Towns group has ensured standards have not only been maintained, but raised. [private] Project Leader with Tuam Tidy Towns Pat Fahy welcomed the positive result and paid tribute to all who had worked so hard to rid Tuam of its 'dirty town' image. He told The Herald that the Tidy Towns committee had taken advice from a Tidy Towns adjudicator who advised them to focus on litter and smaller projects. Resulting from this they had teams out on Bank Holidays tidying up the mess on the streets left by revellers. Because of Co Council cut-backs, staff are no longer available for this work. 'We are finding that although not everybody wants to join a group such as ours, there is plenty of evidence of individuals taking responsibility for litter in the vicinity of their businesses and homes. This is how we hope to see progress being made,' Pat said. He added that they also hoped to see more involvement from the schools, especially in raising awareness of dog litter and the very real problem it is causing. The holding of a Clean to European Norms classification will come as a relief as Tuam has not fared well in IBAL surveys in the past. Of the 53 towns and cities surveyed Tuam has been ranked 27 in the 2011 list. The next ranking down is Moderately Littered and Athlone and Portlaoise were placed in this category. Killarney is the most litter-free town in Ireland. Tuam was categorised Moderately Littered in the 2009 survey but moved up the rankings in 2010 to be placed in the same category as the overall winner, Carlow. In 2002, the first year of the survey, Tuam received some very negative publicity when it was classed as one of the dirtiest litter black spots in the country. Much of the credit for the improvement in the town's image and tackling litter is being given to the Co Council's active Community Wardens and the efforts made by the local business. [/private]