Northern Ireland's Streets Need Cleaned Up, Now More Than Ever.

That is the conclusion from surveys carried out by us which show that streets across the province are dirtier now than at any time in the last 4 years, despite the £34 million local councils spend on street cleaning.

TIDY surveyed more than 500 sites across all of Northern Ireland for the Department of the Environment, and the results make depressing reading, with more litter observed overall and the highest percentage of areas failing to meet government standards for litter since 2006.

Only 2% of areas surveyed had no litter recorded, and 14% failed to reach an acceptable standard, up from just 8% in 2009.

Almost all types of litter became more common in the areas surveyed, which included retail, industrial, housing and recreational areas. Perhaps unsurprisingly, cigarettes and chewing gum were almost ever-present in retail areas. More surprisingly however, drinks litter - cans, bottles and cartons - was found on nearly 9 out of 10 rural roads, and was more common across all land uses than chewing gum.

Perhaps most shockingly, the amount of dog fouling observed increased 5-fold, being found on no less than 15% of all surveys carried out. This disgusting statistic is made worse by the fact that fouling was observed in a massive 27% of recreational areas.

Chris Allen, Local Environmental Quality Officer for TIDY Northern Ireland said "This makes depressing reading for anybody with an interest in improving Northern Ireland. When I look at this data, I am saddened by the way councils are having to spend more than ever to clean up after a minority of selfish people who take no regard for the beautiful country around them. On average, every household in the country is being charged around £50 a year to sweep the streets and remove graffiti, and it's time we found a new way of tackling this serious problem"

"To exactly that end, we are holding a conference in Lisburn on the 14^th of September for all interested parties to come together and discuss how we can best go about changing our outlook on litter, making it socially unacceptable and taking action against those people who simply refuse to accept that litter is their problem"

You can read the full report here

More information about the conference can be found on our conference pages