Maidenhead & Windsor

Abandoned shopping trolleys in the Royal Windsor and Maidenhead Borough are set to be given the push-off if a proposal to allow the council to collect and charge is given the go-ahead.

Under the Windsor and Maidenhead shopping trolley initiative, the council would pick up trolleys dumped in areas such as streets, car parks, streams and public and private land. A charge would be made to the owners for the trolley removal, storage and return to the store.

The proposal was discussed at the planning and environment overview and scrutiny panel meeting on Monday (April 28) and a decision will be made at cabinet on Thursday May 22.

At present abandoned trolleys are often left uncollected for days or even weeks. The council's streetcare services regularly notify owners – usually supermarkets – of the whereabouts of abandoned trolleys and on occasions collect them and return them.

Cllr Colin Rayner, lead member for Windsor and Maidenhead highways, transport and environment, said: "Abandoned trolleys are a blight on the local environment and can be hazardous to road users, so we need to introduce measures to control them. We want to work in partnership with owners so we can prevent trolleys being abandoned in the first place, and to remove them from the street as quickly as possible when they are abandoned. We want to clean up the Royal Borough and this is one of many areas that we are targeting.

"Some trolley owners are already trying to control the situation by installing wheel-locking devices or coin deposit systems but, despite these measures, abandoned trolleys are still a significant problem in our borough and it is unfair on the council taxpayer to pick up the bill for collecting them."

The new initiative would enable the Windsor and Maidenhead council to remove and store an abandoned trolley and charge the owner a fee. If the trolley is not claimed by the owner within six weeks of being notified, the council can dispose of it.

If approved at cabinet, the scheme will be advertised in the local press and subsequently implemented after three months.

The proposed initiative has received support from the Maidenhead Town Forum, the Windsor Town Forum, the Windsor and Eton Town Partnership and the Maidenhead Town Partnership. All the retailers likely to be affected by the scheme have been consulted.

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead