According to the Irish Mirror, the town in Kildare was praised for “a level of cleanliness and presentation that should inspire local authorities across the country to better things”, with its Main Street singled out as “exceptionally well presented and maintained”.

The survey was carried out by Irish Business Against Litter and found that there had been a significant rise in the number of areas considered to be “clean” in Ireland.

IBAL’s Conor Horgan said: “The results reflect a pattern of improvement since the peak of the Covid pandemic, when litter levels soared, especially in cities.

“In particular we are seeing local authorities concentrate their efforts on ridding areas of heavily littered sites. We have no reason to believe this improvement will not be sustained. Cleanliness is a virtuous circle: clean streets beget clean streets, inspiring a pride and consciousness of the environment among people.”