Abandoned shopping trolleys in Weston, which were causing people ‘nightmares’ have finally been removed after more than 10 months of wrangling.
Winterstoke ward councillor Ciaran Cronnelly spent more than 10 months dealing with an epidemic of abandoned Morrisons trolleys across Weston Village and Locking Castle, but had resistance from the store.
Despite pushing Morrisons to collect them and advocating they implement longer-term solutions as early as last July, such as brakes that activate when they reach a certain distance from the store, using trolley tokens or having a dedicated process of collecting reported trolleys in 24 hours, nothing was done.
Ciaran wrote to the chief executive of Morrisons in an attempt to resolve the issue and was also active on social media, posting pictures of trolleys he would find while walking around Weston Village and along with their location and tweeting them to Morrisons.
The letter prompted TrolleyWise, the contractor which work with store, to finally collect the abandoned trolleys.
Several readers had contacted the Mercury to air frustrations at the amount of trolleys scattered around the area, with one stating they ‘had been a nightmare’ for them trying to cycle through the estatea’s cyclepaths.
Cllr Cronnelly said: “This has been a long campaign for me but I’m delighted that this issue has now been resolved and all trolleys have been removed from the rhynes.
“Not only are they an eyesore on our environment but they can also be dangerous. Some of the trolleys in the rhynes were barely visible and when the rhynes are cut back with machinery there’s a significant risk that the trolleys could damage the machinery, or worse, break causing bits of the machine and trolley to go everywhere.
“Morrisons’ contractors have also confirmed they’ll be in the area more frequently to tackle the problem.
“It’s a farcical situation when I have more photos of your trolleys than I do my family.
“I know this has been a big frustration for residents so I’m glad to have brought it to a close.
“If residents do notice dumped trolleys that need clearing, I’d ask them to get in touch with me directly and I’ll ensure they are removed.”
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