New fee for abandoned trolleys in Carmarthenshire
Supermarkets and stores will be charged £25 for each abandoned shopping trolley recovered by Carmarthenshire County Council.
Environment executive board member Cllr Philip Hughes has taken an executive board member decision allowing officers to trace owners and charge them upwards of £25 every time.
An officer’s report showed thousands of customers daily used trolleys at stores and supermarkets across Carmarthenshire. Retailers provided them at a cost of many millions of pounds, with trolleys costing more than £100 each.
Unfortunately, some irresponsible people leave their shopping trolleys unattended in streets and public places risking injuring passers by or damaging property and vehicles.
Cllr Hughes said abandoned trolleys also had an environmental impact when they entered drains and waterways and interfered with the provision of public services.
County environment enforcement officer Paul Morris said they wanted trolleys to stay on shop premises and the motivation to take this action was to try and encourage better trolley management by stores.
He accepted that irresponsible shoppers found ways round the locking mechanisms built into some stores trolleys and determined people would remove trolleys and abandon them with the resultant effect about towns potentially damaging to the environment.
The Authority were launching the operation at Ffynnon Las Estate, Ammanford where there had been complaints of more than 20 trolleys at a time parked up in cul de sacs and outside homes.
The charges made by the council would cover the cost of recovery and storage of an anticipated 100 trolleys the council would collect every month.
Cllr Hughes said: "When abandoned, these trolleys have a negative effect on the quality of the local environment, and trolleys abandoned in water courses have the further potential to cause blockages which result in a significant flooding risk.
“This is not action against the stores. We want to work with them to prevent the risk of damage to people, property and the environment by creating a better trolley management system.”
Ffynnon Las estate in Ammanford is one of the first areas to be targeted by the council for abandoned trolleys.
Environment executive board member Cllr Philip Hughes has taken an executive board member decision allowing officers to trace owners and charge them upwards of £25 every time.
An officer’s report showed thousands of customers daily used trolleys at stores and supermarkets across Carmarthenshire. Retailers provided them at a cost of many millions of pounds, with trolleys costing more than £100 each.
Unfortunately, some irresponsible people leave their shopping trolleys unattended in streets and public places risking injuring passers by or damaging property and vehicles.
Cllr Hughes said abandoned trolleys also had an environmental impact when they entered drains and waterways and interfered with the provision of public services.
County environment enforcement officer Paul Morris said they wanted trolleys to stay on shop premises and the motivation to take this action was to try and encourage better trolley management by stores.
He accepted that irresponsible shoppers found ways round the locking mechanisms built into some stores trolleys and determined people would remove trolleys and abandon them with the resultant effect about towns potentially damaging to the environment.
The Authority were launching the operation at Ffynnon Las Estate, Ammanford where there had been complaints of more than 20 trolleys at a time parked up in cul de sacs and outside homes.
The charges made by the council would cover the cost of recovery and storage of an anticipated 100 trolleys the council would collect every month.
Cllr Hughes said: "When abandoned, these trolleys have a negative effect on the quality of the local environment, and trolleys abandoned in water courses have the further potential to cause blockages which result in a significant flooding risk.
“This is not action against the stores. We want to work with them to prevent the risk of damage to people, property and the environment by creating a better trolley management system.”
Ffynnon Las estate in Ammanford is one of the first areas to be targeted by the council for abandoned trolleys.
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