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 Thurles Town improves its standing in the IBAL (Irish Business Against Litter) league.
Just one of the three County Tipperary towns taking part in the Irish Business Against Litter League has achieved “litter free” status.
Thurles is ranked 30th of the 60 towns and cities in the IBAL League and has improved from its “moderately littered” ranking at the end of 2008.
The first round report from IBAL for this year rates Clonmel as “moderately littered” while Nenagh has fallen to “littered” status. Latter towns both lost their ‘litter free’ status from last year, finishing in 43rd and 49th respectively.
Litter levels throughout the country have improved once again with over 68% of Irish towns and cities now classed as “litter free” according to the latest litter survey by Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL). However, the group is warning that many areas are likely to suffer this summer with the large-scale reduction of weekend cleaning due to budget cuts. A further concern is that cities’ are not doing as well as the towns as the peak tourist season begins.
The survey of 60 towns and cities, conducted by An Taisce on behalf of IBAL, revealed Wexford to be Ireland’s cleanest town, ahead of Ennis. The number of “Litter Free” areas nationwide hit a record high of 41. Athlone and Mallow were the country’s sole litter black spots, with Arklow ‘seriously littered’.
Wexford is Ireland’s cleanest town with Athlone and Mallow the only ‘Litter Blackspots’ in the league.
Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) was set up in 1996 as an alliance of companies who believe that litter has a significant impact on our economic well-being. The main sources of our prosperity – tourism, Foreign Direct Investment and our food industries – all depend on an image of Ireland as a clean and green island. We are now a high-cost destination for visitors, who deserve first-class standards of cleanliness.
IBAL believes that it is the job of Local Government to solve our litter problem. It is through enforcement of litter laws – not public information campaigns – that we will rid our country of this scourge.
Latest results show 36 out of 55 towns are Clean to European Norms compared to only 2 when the survey began in 2002.
 North Tipperary‘s 2009 allocation for local and regional road maintenance has been slashed by more than €4million. Deputy Noel Coonan has expressed deep frustration at this savage cut which represents a quarter of the 2009 grant allocation. Following the April Supplementary Budget, revised allocations were notified to local authorities and the actual figure for North Tipperary has just been revealed.
North Tipperary County Council’s allocation was dramatically cut by €3,731,000. Nenagh Town Council and Thurles Town Council both witnessed a 40% drop from €287,000,000 to €177,000. Templemore Town Council also lost 40% or €78,000 of its allocation. This amounts to a total of €4,029,000.
Deputy Coonan stated:
“The improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads is determined by Department for Transport resources and yet again the Government is putting lives at risk by another unfair and unsafe budgetary constraint. We needed this money to carry out vital works such as calming measures, road alleviations, flashing lights at schools, bridge improvements and patching of potholes. This move will inevitably cost jobs, a measure we can ill afford in North Tipperary as the Live Register grows steadily. Last February Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey TD unveiled a huge programme to repair Ireland’s network of local and regional roads. At the time he said: “The Programme involves projects in all areas that support employment and economic activity”. Now the Transport Minister has done a huge u-turn to the detriment of North Tipperary roads, many of which have been very badly battered over the Winter. This deals a dangerous blow to road safety across the constituency. The programme was desperately needed to eradicated numerous accident black spots and possibly saved lives as a consequence. I’m extremely disappointed to see these cuts come into place because I know this is of great concern to those living in rural Ireland who are travelling unsafe and uneven roads infested with craters everyday.”
Local and regional roads account for 94% of the Irish network. They carry about 60% of all traffic and 43% of all goods traffic.
 It’s not easy to become green in North Tipperary. Residents of Ireland’s first eco-village in Cloughjordan, Co Tipperary, described by the once native poet and patriot Thomas McDonagh, as a place “in calm of middle country“, have been told by the Tipp NR council they must now pay €160,000 to meet social and affordable housing requirements.
Being a not-for-profit formed Co-Operative, the residents had expected to be exempt from a provision that required land developers to hand over 20% of new estates for affordable housing or make a hefty financial contribution instead.
Eco – villages are urban or rural communities of people who strive to integrate a supportive social environment with a low impact way of life. To achieve this, they integrate various aspects of ecological design, permaculture, ecological building, green production, alternative energy, community building practices, and much more.
In this Cloughjordan planned “Eco Village” ninety per cent of waste will be recycled and each house will be built fully from environmentally friendly materials. There will be an orchard, a wild life area, an organic farm, community buildings, a broadband communications network and 60% of heating will come from solar energy.
Becoming a member and buying a site in this development offers the purchaser an opportunity to build their home in a unique, sustainable community, which is committed to ecological and social quality of life.
North Tipperary Council have ruled, however, that Ireland’s first sustainable village falls within the remit of the planning and development act.
Miriam Kelly, a spokesperson for The Eco Village said:
“Our vision was to create a truly social and affordable community, so it’s disappointing that we’re being treated by the Council as speculative developers.”
Paddy Heffernan director of housing for the North Tipperary Co Council said:
“We welcome this scheme, but there is no exemption in the act for this kind of development. Our hands are tied.”
Can someone please untie North Tipperary Co.Council’s hands, thus allowing them to make logical decisions on behalf of those who elected them into office?
Since these representatives are unable to make decisions on behalf of their electorate why not cancel the June county and local elections? We as a country can no longer afford public representatives manipulated by a puppeteer.
It is very appropriate then that a screening of the film The Age of Stupid, showing how we accelerate community responses to the economic downturn, resource depletion and climate change, can be viewed in Cloughjordan on Saturday 25th April next at 8.00pm. No doubt vote seeking public representatives will be in attendance with flowers in their hair, displaying their love of all things environmental.
The Age of Stupid is the new movie from Director Franny Armstrong (McLibel) and producer John Battsek (One Day In September). Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite stars as a man living alone in the devastated future world of 2055, looking at old footage from 2008 and asking: why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance? It was first released in UK cinemas on 20th March 2009 and should be made compulsory viewing for all.
 Recent speculation that Lisheen Mines near Thurles could be forced to close down following a global decline in zinc prices, have been totally dispelled by their company spokesman this week.
Recent media reports claimed that the parent company Anglo American PLC were planning a wind-down plan for its large zinc mine located between Moyne and Templetuohy, in the townsland of Lisheen.
The mine, which employs over 300 workers, 70% of whom are recruited locally,was reported to be losing money. Rumours may have been fueled, when Anglo American PLC announced they had completed a wide ranging review of its capital expenditure programme last December and reduced its 2009 capital expenditure by more than 50% to $4.5 billion. At this date in time the mining industry worldwide is experiencing an unprecedented period of rapid decline in commodity prices, all due to the present global economic uncertainty.
The Base Metals Division of Anglo American plc, Anglo Base Metals has interests in 14 operations in seven countries across South America, southern Africa and Europe. The company produces nickel, zinc, copper, phosphate and niobium, together with associated by-products including lead, molybdenum and silver. This division of Anglo American PLC has also several projects, across three continents, which have recently been commissioned, and are under construction. The corporate offices of Anglo Base Metals are located in London and Johannesburg, with regional offices in Santiago and São Paulo.
In September last year, Galmoy mine in Co Kilkenny, which is owned by the Canadian-based Lundin Mining Corporation, closed with the loss of 220 jobs. The operating costs at Lisheen Mine are the lowest of the three Irish zinc mines.
 Dáil Deputy Michael Lowry, T.D. has confirmed to Thurles.Info today that funding, totalling €71,000 has been approved for six Tipperary organisations involved in the direct delivery of animal care and animal welfare services. The funding is to assist these organisations in meeting their running costs during 2009.
The organisations to benefit from this funding are:
Cottage Rescue €5,000.00.
Irish AllPure Bred Rescue €4,000.00.
Paws Animal Rescue €25,000.00.
Roscrea SPCA €12,000.00.
Tipperary Friends of Animals €15,000.00
Tipperary SPCA €10,000.00
Speaking to Thurles.Info today Deputy Lowry said:
“I am pleased to confirm that funding has been approved to these organisations. It is important that funding is allocated immediately to ensure that the groups can meet the demand in the period after Christmas. Unfortunately, the months after Christmas are sadly the busiest time for animal welfare organisations. Pets given at Christmas can too often become an unwanted burden. Many of these animals given as Christmas presents end up in the care of animal rescue groups such as these six beneficiaries. I want to take this opportunity to pay tribute to all the staff and volunteers involved in the organisations and in particular to their efforts to provide quality animal rescue services and care. While this allocation will assist with the ongoing running costs of the six Tipperary organisations, I am well aware that it does not meet the increasing demands placed on them. I have appealed for additional funding to the Minister for Agriculture who has responsibility for animal welfare. I am confident that the general public will continue to support these groups so that they can maintain and sustain their operations”
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