Portlaoise "Seriously Littered"

adser53

So I'm reading The Star (glorified toilet paper, I know) today and I see an article from the IBAL (Irish Business Against Litter) where they ranked the country's towns according to their litter levels and what did I find?

Portlaoise was the bottom of the list!!!! 53rd out of 53 candidates! And to make matters worse, we were the only town to be labled "Seriously Littered".

Now I'm not a native Portlaoise-onian but this both shocked and embarrassed me as I've lived here for 3 years now and it's my home!!!
Personally, I don't think the town is the worst in the country. It's far from spotless but compared to a lot of places I see daily, it might as well be! Tallaght, for instance, is a filthy kip (I'm allowed say that because I grew up there and work there ) but it ranked 46th out of 53?!!! And Dublin city is much dirtier (not to mention Cabra, Finglas, Clondalkin, Neilstown etc- all places I see daily)

Last year we ranked 52nd, only ahead of Tallaght which is still embarrassing.

So am I alone? Am I the only person that doesn't see the filth lining Portlaoise's streets or is this survey a bit skewed?

Here's a link to the results in case anyone wants to see the full list of towns that are better than us...

http://www.ibal.ie/v1/default.php?content=latestresults.php

SIX PACK

All those who are able bodied (myself included) who are in Receipt of Social Welfare, Should be made go out there & Clean up the place perhaps everyone has to do 8 hrs per wk, Im sure plenty of Volunteers would step up to the plate if we were given the tools to do the Job . . .
Im actually not suprised Portlaoise was named The worst town for Litter Where are the Public Bins their is around 8 or 10 around the town centre & thats about the size of it "Laois County Council" Have a lot to answer for...
Carlow got 1st place :eek: Probably because they provide plenty of Public bins so people dont have to throw their rubbish on the ground as well as that im guessing their is no Corruption Carlow town Council . . . Either that or the Litter Warden takes no prisoners

Evolution Enter

I question a lot of these surveys and who is doing them. Where the hell are they looking, cos Portlaoise really doesn't seem that dirty compare to a lot of other places!! It wasn't too long ago Portlaoise got an award for how well it was looking, and I think (not sure) it's tidy towns points improved!

Another stupid headline

adser53

SIX PACK wrote: »

All those who are able bodied (myself included) who are in Receipt of Social Welfare, Should be made go out there & Clean up the place perhaps everyone has to do 8 hrs per wk, Im sure plenty of Volunteers would step up to the plate if we were given the tools to do the Job . . .
Im actually not suprised Portlaoise was named The worst town for Litter Where are the Public Bins their is around 8 or 10 around the town centre & thats about the size of it "Laois County Council" Have a lot to answer for...
Carlow got 1st place :eek: Probably because they provide plenty of Public bins so people dont have to throw their rubbish on the ground as well as that im guessing their is no Corruption Carlow town Council . . . Either that or the Litter Warden takes no prisoners

I agree with you on the completely on both points above. There is no reason why people on the Dole couldn't go out for a few hours per week to pick up a bit of rubbish. Was this not proposed a few months back but unemployment groups kicked up saying that the work was demeaning and such and to expect people to work for the dole was sinful?

And you won't find anyone that will agree with you more than myself about the litter bins. It's absolutely shocking how few bins there are around the place. You could walk for miles around the town and not actually come across a bin (unless you go down main st or through the little memorial park on Ridge Rd.) Speaking of that park, the feckin thing is tiny and there's 2 bins in it if memory serves?

I also see the litter warden's van around a lot and have never seen that in Dublin so I'm assuming he's out and about all the time, plus the tidy towns committee do a lot around the place.

Like I said, I'm under no illusion that Portlaoise is the cleanest town in Ireland but to come last and to be classified as the only town with a serious litter problem??? Come off it.

I looked up the Tidy Towns Results this morning and in 2010, Tallanstown Co Louth won it overall with a score of 308 points. Portlaoise got a bronze medal (along with nearly 20 other towns) with 277 points. (download the results here http://www.tidytowns.ie/results.php)That's not a big difference between the Winner and Portlaoise so how could we be last on that IBAL survey?

I call shenanigans :mad:

thoker

instead of people on the dole picking up litter why don't the lazy bastards who drop the littter, not do so in the first place

sydthebeat

what should it be people on the dole??? why isnt EVERYBODY required to spend some hrs per week cleaning their town.... one of the worst consequences of the celtic tiger is the lack of civic responsibility.

**Vai**

Well, people who work for their money should be included on a voluntary basis but theres no reason why the above posters suggestion shouldnt be implemented. Its not like they're at much else.

Portlaoise isnt too bad far as dirt is concerned. Although after a bank holiday or a GAA match u could forgive them for thinking differently. Theres been a few mornings of dodging broken bottles while walking my dogs because some people cant handle alcohol without being destructive.

Place is littered with travellers tho. Anyone see the guy with his top off in front of the garda barracks yesterday? Goading people to fight him. Scum.

adser53

People who litter are filth, plain and simple and I can sympathise with the whole "Why should we clean up after them?" opinion expressed above but people like this are why we have county councils and the like already. Someone is always picking up after them in more ways than one.

I don't think it's unreasonable to ask someone who gets €180 a week for nowt, to sacrifice a few hours to pick up some rubbish. Most people on the dole want to work, I'm not saying they're all moochers but to equally expect someone who works 40 hours a week and gets no benefits to go out and pick up litter in their free time is asking too much for some. It's hard to get people out to clean their own housing estates in their free time (trust me, I've organised a few of those clean up days) so expecting the masses to do it for the town is daft. But if they got nearly 200 quid to go out and do it for a few hours, I'm sure the turnout would be much greater!

And Vai is right, the place does be pretty bad after a match or a piss up. I think there's more dog ****, broken glass and vomit on the streets of Portlaoise come Monday morning than paper litter and the likes.

Didn't see that chap yesterday either,I'm sure it would've been a gas sight though. Please tell me someone came out of the barracks and clattered him?

**Vai**

God I hope so. Cops are probably terrified of them. There was a gang of them up there, must have one of them in the barracks for something.

Crann na Beatha

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Crann na Beatha

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kc66

Spent a weekend in Portlaoise last Summer and definitely did not think its dirty/littered.

MickShamrock

Obaraten wrote: »

I am also abit shocked over Portlaoise been last in the dirty towns league!

We are first, depending on which way you look at it! :pac:

Bubblegums

I say leave people on social welfare alone, why should they be treated worse than criminals and MADE do anything?

I say get the prisoners out, like in states, and chain gang them to clean up. Get all the little pups, that are hanging around shop doorways etc waiting to mug old people and speeding around in silly Micras with a bit of chrome pipe out the back, out to do 'community service' and anyone on suspended sentences... The list is quite long before the need to start picking on people on social welfare through no fault of their own.

It's a criminal offence to litter, so MAKE criminals clean up or better still, hire people properly to go clean up and get the gardai to patrol more and to confront people who litter and actually charge them for doing it for a change. Surely with all the cameras up around Portlaoise they must have spotted at least one person litter???

No law abiding citizen, on the 'dole' or otherwise should be MADE clean up other people's rubbish when the prisons are heaving with criminals getting multi channel tv and no fear of the ESB or heating being cut!

**Vai**

Bubblegums wrote: »

Get all the little pups, that are hanging around shop doorways etc waiting to mug old people and speeding around in silly Micras with a bit of chrome pipe out the back, out to do 'community service' and anyone on suspended sentences... The list is quite long before the need to start picking on people on social welfare through no fault of their own.

So "pick" on people with loud Micras instead? I think you'll find most of the people you describe are on the dole anyway.

Bubblegums

I never said they had loud Micras lol

Cole

I was in Portlaoise today and was a bit taken aback by the litter around the town. I parked in the area across the road from the Tesco shopping centre, it was filthy. The main street wasn't as bad, but still not great.

I think we are a dirty, filthy country in general for litter, but I don't go around comparing towns. I'm well travelled around the country and this was more noticeable than most places I've seen recently.....especially for the centre of a town.