Galway has emerged smelling of roses in the latest national litter awareness survey.

It has been ranked as the cleanest city in Ireland in the latest report by business group Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL).

And it has jumped up the rankings to 11th out of 40 towns and cities surveyed — from 19th in the previous survey

It is now categorised as ‘Cleaner than European Norms’, an improvement from its June 2024 ‘Clean’ classification.

And Ballybane — which is judged as a separate area in the survey — has improved from being ranked at the very bottom of the 40 areas surveyed, up five places to 35th.

However, it is still classified as ‘Littered’ in the survey, which was carried out by An Taisce for IBAL.

“The presence of five top-ranking sites has nudged Ballybane up the litter league — however, there were still two litter blackspots, stubbornly so … Ballybane Village and Ballybane Industrial Estate.

“The latter has been a litter blackspot on numerous previous IBAL surveys – where does responsibility for the cleaning of communal areas lie?” the report asked.

On the plus side, “Ballybane Road presented well, and Ballybane Road Shopping Centre and Community Organic Garden were all deserving of the top litter grade”.

The rest of the city is judged separately, and the report describes its 11th out of 40 ranking as an “exceptionally good result”,  with 19 of the 25 sites surveyed getting the top litter grade — there were no litter blackspots

“Top-ranking sites include a variety of residential areas (Lurgan Park, Béal Taoid); Lakeshore Drive Playground (all aspects were in very good order); University of Galway campus (an extensive environment which was freshly presented and maintained); Library at Westside had some colourful and welcoming features and was very good with regards to litter; there was a complete absence of litter at Corrib Rangers Boys Academy.”

Galway City Council said this week that the ‘cleaner than European norms’ classification for Galway reflected the on-going work in the city to tackle litter.

Those measures included:

■ Power washing of city centre streets;

■ Daily litter picks and street cleaning;

■ Solar powered, high-capacity bins;

■ Public water stations to refill bottles;

■ Initiatives such as Green-Schools, Clean Coasts, Bulky Goods collections, the Eglinton Canal Project, and Community Cleans among others.

In relation to the ‘Littered’ classificaztion for Ballybane, the Council said it continues to work with the community in Ballybane to address litter hotspots in the area.

“One such recent initiative carried out by Merlin Residents Association finished as runner up at the National Pride of Place awards 2024 in the Urban Neighbourhood Category.

“This initiative involved local residents and school children working with a local artist and the City Council to create the Last Wolf of Merlin mural to make a vibrant, welcoming space in a former litter hotspot.”

Last June, when Ballybane was ranked worst of all the areas surveyed in the country for IBAL, a City Council statement said that it would continue to actively engage with local businesses to ensure they met their responsibilities under the Litter Pollution Act to keep areas litter free.

It warned then: “Where there is no improvement, Galway City Council will look at the enforcement route.”

Pictured: Solar-powered high capacity bins are part of Galway City Council’s anti-litter strategy. Photo: Brian Harding.