A PILOT scheme collecting abandoned trollies around Ellesmere Port town centre has so far proved a big success.
Back in September Trolley Collection Services (TCS) contacted the borough council about introducing such a service in the Port.
The Devon-based firm works for supermarkets in a particular area and picks up their trollies which have been dumped in the streets by customers.
Ellesmere Port suffers a lot from this problem, with trollies regularly dumped by the taxi rank in Whitby Road and behind town centre business premises.
TCS launched the pilot scheme here on September 23. It runs until January 26 specifically to cover the busy Christmas and New Year period.
As part of this, the firm has been collecting all abandoned trolleys in the town on a daily basis and returning them to their rightful owners, regardless of whether the store itself has signed up to the scheme.
Borough environmental protection officer Michael Cronley said: “TCS will e-mail us the total number of trollies collected on a weekly basis.
“We will continue to monitor hotspots and assess the success of this operation.
“From data submitted up to October 18, TCS had collected 124 trollies in the borough.
“Their figures will be compared to the number of trollies previously collected by us as a measure to evaluate the scheme.”
Borough chiefs are shortly to meet TCS to discuss whether to continue the scheme. TCS is also about to launch an e-mail address and phone numbers for the public to call to report dumped trollies.
Mr Cronley added: “Our objective of initially charging (the supermarkets) to collect abandoned trollies was to improve the environmental impact within the borough.
“This initiative proposed by the local retailers will hopefully have the same objective. As such, it is appropriate we endorse this trial.
“But if the trial is found to be unsuccessful, we have the authority to revert to charging again.”
