Labour councillors are hopeful of positive action after a series of meetings with representatives of a Caerphilly supermarket over dumped trolleys.
Labour candidates for the Morgan Jones Ward, Cllr James Pritchard, Cllr Shayne Cook, and Shelly Hodder have been working closely with the Caerphilly County Borough Council’s Environmental Health Department, Keep Wales Tidy and supermarket Asda to help tackle the issue of dumped trolleys in the area.
Asda are exploring the possibility of implementing a locking system around the perimeter of their boundary to help contain the issue. The problem has reportedly been made worse due to the removal of the pound coin operated system. Councillors say the situation now is “worse than ever”.
Cllr James Pritchard claimed dumped trolleys were being found some way from Asda grounds and action needed to be taken.
He said: “Residents particularly living in Churchill Park are incredibly frustrated with scores of trolleys being dumped. Trolleys are also being found in the Nant yr Aber, on Pontygwindy Road and in Pontypandy. Several residents are supplying me with photos outlining the problem and this has been useful to highlight the issue to Asda”.
Cllr Shayne Cook added: “This [a perimeter boundary] would be a welcome step forward. We’ve raised this as a suitable measure when meeting with Asda over the issue”.
Council candidate Shelly Hodder said: “This is a real issue on the doorstep and residents are rightly annoyed that trolleys are being dumped sporadically around the area. This shouldn’t be happening; but Asda need to secure their own property”.
Asda were approached for comment.
Asda does not dump trolleys – the residents do.
You’re being kind calling them residents – more like brainless, selfish, lazy, shameless, idiots.
You’re both right.
This infuriates me as even though Asda is an ” evil corporate giant” (cue the foreboding music) it isn’t at fault here.
The lazy, uncivil, careless, antisocial residents of Churchill park are the reason this is an issue.
I have personally taken over 30 of these trolleys back over approximately 5 or 6 occasions. On two of those occasions residents just walked straight past the trolleys I was struggling with and into ASDA to do their shopping!
I accept that some of these residents are as you described, but Asda are also aware of the impact of removing the coin controls from trolleys on the local environment. They must know what some of the idiots are like and therefore should have some plan to mitigate a problem quickly that they have re-introduced and should jointly own.
Some supermarkets have trollies where the wheels lock if taken outside the premises perimeter – ASDA should adopt that system too.
After all, these trollies are ASDA’s property and must be fairly expensive so you would think that they wouldn’t want to lose them – or is it too easy to recoup the trolley losses by increasing prices ?
Why dont we utiliase the council wardens to collect these trollies. The council are paying them to walk around the streets, they may as well earn their pay collecting trollies, instead of doing nothing
Good idea but I still think the residents should take responsibility. For instance I often litter pick around where I live, others do too. We did not leave the litter but we do have the necessary self motivation to keep the place clean. It’s no good expecting the council to do everything as, apart from anything else, council collections are expensive and we all have to pay for them.
I agree maybe we need more enforcement officer to combat people dropping litter. I also we need a tired fine system for children who drop the litter it would hit home if they had to foot the bill. Sadly the council are cutting the wrong services. We need more enforcement officers and litter pickers not these council wardens. I also think its a business opportunity for a local company to start up and collect these trollies and charge asda to return them.
What we need is a private enforcement company – someone with enough “get up and go” to catch and fine the culprits.
I don’t think that a company charging Asda would be legal Edward. The supermarket provides trolleys for the convenience of customers. People are allowed to use them only on company property, removing them to anywhere else is actually theft. That may be the solution, catch a few of the people removing trolleys and summons them to court.
Who is the warden for Caerphilly ? I’ve never seen one !
How would you contact them ?
I just ring the police and thy usually turn up to deal with the my issues