After a year of extensive work to keep Kilkenny beautiful by all it is wonderful to be acknowledged by IBAL with a fantastic result for Kilkenny City in 2023. “Cleaner than European Norms” and 4th in Ireland. This is a reflection on the tremendous work undertaken by our volunteers, our community, our businesses and Kilkenny CoCo. Congratulations also to Maynooth who took the No. 1 position in 2023
An Taisce Report – IBAL Anti-Litter League, Survey 2, 2023
Kilkenny: 4th out of 40 towns / cities surveyed. Cleaner than European Norms.
As always, a very strong performance by Kilkenny with eight out of the ten sites surveyed getting the top litter grade and no heavily littered sites. Top-ranking sites included Bottle Bank at St Canice’s Car Park, St. Kieran’s Street, The Mall, High Street and Kilkenny Castle Park – these sites weren’t just good with regard to litter, but the overall presentation and maintenance of same was excellent. A fairy recent addition to Kilkenny is the lovely Riverside Garden and Skatepark site – it has been very attractively laid out but not nearly as clean as neighbouring sites.
R712 Approach Dublin Road direction: Grade A. There were no obvious litter issues along this busy approach, creating a positive first impression of Kilkenny.
R712 from Castlecomer Roundabout: Grade A. Road surface, markings and signage were all in very good condition along this tree lined route. Footpath / bicycle track were freshly presented. All was in good order with regards to litter.
Canice’s Car Park: Grade B. There was a virtual absence of litter on the main surface of the car park. It was the litter in the surrounding shrubbery which brought down the litter grade – as well as isolated items, there were a couple of bags of discarded rubbish. Care needs to be taken that this doesn’t build up even further.
Bottle Bank, St. Canice’s Car Park: Grade A. This small facility was excellent in terms of overall presentation, with an absence of litter. The individual recycle bin units and the signage associated with the use of same were in very good condition.
High Street: Grade A. A pristine street. High Street is very attractively laid out with lovely paving, wooden seating, bicycle parking, bollards, extensive visitor information notices and some lovely colourful planter boxes. It’s well served by litter bins and the street cleaner was very thorough as it was exceptionally clean.
Kilkenny Castle Park: Grade A. A wonderful resource and lovingly tended – it is such a tribute to the users of this vast expanse of green space that it was so so clean. All aspects within the park were in very good condition e.g., litter bins, visitor information signage, playground equipment, life-belt at the pond feature etc. As well as the typical visitor information signage, one of the notices related to ‘Dignity in the Workplace’.
St. Kieran’s Street: Grade A. This narrow, pedestrianised shopping street was very much deserving of the top litter grade. Clearly a careful eye is kept on the closed down premises as there was no litter directly associated with them. A colourful mural takes away the bare look of one site and the ‘’Food for Life’ premises has taken great care to enhance their shopfront with some lovely wall paintings.
The Mall: (the Parade) Grade A. Preparations was underway for the Christmas Market. The area was surveyed at a busy lunchtime with plenty of lunchtime outdoor dining. Despite the activity, it was a very clean site. The Mall is a very freshly presented environment with plenty of seating, ‘olde’ style street lamps, bicycle parking, visitor information signage and plenty of litter bins throughout.
Riverside Garden and Skatepark: Grade B. This is a fairly new addition to Kilkenny (June 2021) and has been very attractively laid out, with great care taken at the older, historic waterfront buildings. The paving, seating, planted areas, ‘olde’ style street lamps etc. were lovely. There were plenty of combined litter bins / recycle bins throughout the long stretch of pathway leading to the Skatepark. Overall, the area was very mixed with regards to litter – some parts were spotless, others were far from spotless, resulting in an overall Grade B status. This could easily slide to a seriously littered site if allowed to build up any further.
Dunnes Stores Shopping Centre: Grade A. There was a virtual absence of litter at his busy shopping environment. Some of the pedestrian pathway paint was beginning to wear away.
