Tipperary fail to meet NEP standards last year according to EPA report

Tipperary County Council did not meet the required environmental standards last year, according to a new report by the EPA.The Focus on Local Authority Environmental Enforcement Performance Report 2021, released this week, said that it was one of nine local authorities that performed poorly.

The report said: “Nine local authorities did not achieve the required standard in more than 30% of their NEPs.

“ These were Offaly, Mayo, Sligo, Wexford, Waterford, Tipperary, Laois, Roscommon and South Dublin.”

The report scores local authorities on 20 NEPs or National Enforcement Priorities. Those priorities are grouped into four themes, governance processes, waste, water and air and noise.

Local authorities are scored on a four-point scale - excellent, strong, moderate or limited. Tipperary was strong in some areas of governance, waste and water (four NEPs) but scored moderate in most others.

The local authority was graded limited on one measure- local issues under air and noise priorities. As a result, the EPA listed actions to be taken by local authorities to improve scores.

This included better involvement of senior staff, multi-agency cooperation and implementing more inspections.

The report says the aim is to get all local authorities to be strong on all measures between 2022 and 2024.

NOAC

However, there has been some progress. The National Oversight and Audit commission reported recently that Tipperary County Council had made significant improvement in pollution and litter.

The NOAC report said:

“In respect of areas classed as unpolluted or litter free, NOAC is pleased to see that Tipperary has recorded the largest increase in litter free or unpolluted areas, going from 7% in 2020 to 63% in 2021, an increase of 56%.”