THERE WERE MIXED FORTUNES for Wicklow in the recent Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) survey. While Arklow and Wicklow climbed up the table, Bray slid down the rankings. However, despite Wicklow climbing up the table it was still classed as moderately littered. There was better news for Arklow and Bray who were both clean to European norms.

Bray, which was the overall winning town last year, came in in 21st position out of 53 towns and cities surveyed while Arklow was nipping at its heels coming in in 26th position. Wicklow lagged behind in 41st position.

The judges said that while Bray has slipped a bit it was still a good result, the best in Wicklow. 'Half of the sites surveyed in Bray were very good and the Promenade was an excellent site. The Main Street was well maintained while Scoil Naofa was spotless. There was one bad site, the Old Dargle Road and one isolated area there was responsible for the poor ranking of this site.'

Arklow improved on its 2009 result which was commended by the judges. ' Half of the sites surveyed in Arklow were very good. There were not just clear of litter but well presented and maintained. There was just one bad area, the Mill Road, which was heavily littered and the derelict buildings and graffiti didn't help the overall appearance.'

In Wicklow town the judges said ' The Dunbar Approach Road, Main Street, Graham's Court and the car park at the Harbour front on Castle Street were all clean to European norms. With a little extra effort some of the moderately littered sites could easily reach this standard such as Lidl and Glebemount.

' The Ballynerrin Approach Road was characterised by heavy levels of a wide variety of litter.'

Some towns lost their litter free status this year promoting calls for local authorities to focus on approach roads.

Chairman of IBAL, Dr. Tom Cavanagh said 'while the drop in the number of litter-free towns is a disappointment, the overall result here is positive. The average score of all the towns surveyed is now closer than ever to the European average.

According to IBAL, the loss of litter-free status was caused in most cases by the neglect by county councils of approach roads, among them key entry points to airports and seaports. Unlike roads in urban areas, these are not subject to a cleaning schedule.

'Primary routes at the entrances to our main cities and ring roads are often heavily littered, and cleaning is infrequent and inconsistent,' said Dr Cavanagh. ' We need cleaning schedules for these routes, like those in Northern Ireland. We also need a portion of the monies which the National Roads Authority (NRA) gives to county councils for general maintenance and cleaning to be set aside strictly for the purpose of cleaning up litter. Tourists visiting the country would quickly notice the change this would bring about. ' To keep on the right side of the law, as well as to show corporate citizenship and community spirit, businesses should look to clean up outside their premises, including their car parks, twice daily. This would have an enormous impact on our streetscapes in one fell swoop and reduce local authority cleaning costs.' According to the Litter Act, businesses are responsible for keeping the visible areas outside their premises free of litter at all times, regardless of the source of the litter.

In a new initiative set up by IBAL Wicklow people are invited to submit photos by mobile phone of litter black spots in their neighbourhood as part of a ' litter twitter' campaign to alert local authorities to litter-ridden areas locally. ' This is the perfect technology through which people can highlight areas that urgently need cleaning up,' said Dr. Cavanagh. Photos can be emailed to litterspotter. 2010@ twitpic. com and IBAL can be followed at twitter.com/litterspotter.