‘Growing problem’ of abandoned trolleys could land supermarkets with £100 return fee

Newport City Council could charge supermarkets £100 for trolleys abandoned on public land.

Abandoned trolleys are a “growing problem” in the city and bring a host of “negative impacts” including visual pollution, antisocial behaviour and environmental damage, the council said.

It hopes a new policy will curb the issue and give retailers a financial incentive to make sure trolleys stay on their property.

The public will likely have a say on the proposals for a new abandoned shopping trolley policy in the near future.

Under those proposed rules, the local authority would remove an abandoned trolley from council land or highways and keep it in storage for up to six weeks.

The council will find and contact each trolley’s owner within seven days of its removal, notifying them of the seizure and making arrangements for its return.

The proposed charge for this overall service would be set at £100 per trolley – lower than the £120 to £200 the council estimates each trolley costs.

In cases where the owner is unknown or where a trolley is not collected, after six weeks the council will take ownership of that trolley and will likely resell or otherwise dispose of it.

Some supermarkets have existing arrangements with a third-party organisation to collect reported abandoned trolleys, but the council argues “this process is far from sufficient”.

A Lliswerry ward councillor complained previously that under current procedures for reporting abandoned trolleys, “it takes several months or… they are not collected at all”.

Under the new proposals, the council’s powers would be limited to its own land and public highways, and would not include main rivers or other waterways under the management of agencies such as Natural Resources Wales.

However, in those cases the council would contact those agencies to request a trolley’s removal.

The policy will also exclude private land, but the council has opened the possibility of some collections if a landowner makes a request.

“Abandoned shopping trolleys are having an increasing impact upon our local environment – they can make an area look run down, contribute to littering, antisocial behaviour, cause harm to wildlife and create a flood hazard in waterways,” the council said.

“With this policy, Newport City Council aims to encourage businesses to introduce measures to control access to and the use of shopping trolleys, to prevent them from becoming abandoned.”

The council also hopes the policy will “take steps to reduce the number of abandoned trolleys”, as well as “increase residents’ satisfaction with the place where they live, and reduce waste and litter and associated antisocial behaviour”.