Kilkenny Beautiful! City takes joint second in IBAL Anti Litter League

Kilkenny City has been confirmed as one of the tidiest places in Ireland - taking joint second in the IBAL Anti Litter League.

In the final litter survey of 2022 by business group Irish Business Against Litter Kilkenny was just edged out for top spot by last year's winner, Naas.

Chairperson of Keep Kilkenny Beautiful, Cllr Maria Dollard welcomed the news saying ”to come joint second is a great result and is a great credit to our KKB Volunteers, Kilkenny County Council Outdoor Crew and all the fantastic businesses in Kilkenny who take such pride in their businesses appearance and keeping their area looking beautiful for visitors and locals alike. This year in the Tidy Towns competition we retained our Gold Medal Status coming within 3 points of the overall winner and we hope to do even better this year, working with the people of Kilkenny, the businesses and Kilkenny County Council to achieve the overall prizes in both IBAL and Tidy Towns. Kilkenny can reach for the stars in being the best most and sustainable town in Ireland” 

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An Taisce conducts the surveys on behalf of IBAL. Its report for Kilkenny stated: "Kilkenny is no stranger to high placement in IBAL litter league and this time around it has scored particularly well with nine out of the ten sites surveyed getting the top litter grade. Examples included the approach roads, Kilkenny Train Station (Exterior and Interior), the Main Street / Parliament Street and Market Cross Shopping Centre – there was lovely paving at the latter. The only blemish was the Recycle Bank at St. Canice’s, which was moderately littered." 

 The An Taisce report for Carlow town stated: "A great result for Carlow in regaining ‘clean’ status - especially compared to a few years ago.  This has been brought about by a couple of significantly improved sites which had previously very much brought down the overall town ranking - Car Park at Penny Lane & Home Savers.  The Potato Market was a freshly presented and maintained town centre environment and the Liberty Tree was litter free.  By far the most heavily littered site in Carlow was Car Park at Mr Price – no improvement over a long number of years." 

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Cleanliness levels nationwide improved by 6% in 2022. For the third year in succession, Waterford was the cleanest city, ahead of Galway. Urban areas improved by 12%, yet they continue to occupy the lower positions in the IBAL rankings.