Monday 19 March 2007

A Less Charming View

That's five trolleys you can see in this short stretch. Mid-April some sort of decision's going to be made by Tesco central re coin-release trolleys for Whitchurch. I'd have thought it was a no-brainer. The money and time that's wasted pulling trolleys out, the cost of replacing stolen ones, the less tangible but nevertheless hugely important cost in community relations, environmental message and store profile - can there be any other answer?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mid-April? That must be 3 months. And I thought the Public Sector dragged their heels. I wonder what the criteria are? I should imagine Cohen and Stockwell would have been a bit more dynamic.

Nice daffs though.

Kate said...

I first approached them about it in December. Sadly, the manager of the store who was behind the proposal is moving on, so I might have to start again to an extent (though I'm sure my communications will be passed on).

I've emailed Customer Care too, just so they're aware of the situation at the brook. The thing is, it'll soon be time for the voles to start breeding so we need to get the trolleys sorted as soon as possible.

Anonymous said...

Kate,
Saw a Water Vole this morning at 08.00. It was on the near bank (car park side) by the pipe. It then swam to the other bank and went under the rushes that hang down, where it presumably has a burrow. The larder just up the bank was filled with fresh grass / reed cuttings.
The least damaging way to remove the trolleys would be to wade into the brook and vertically lift them out, thereby causing minimal damage to the banks. However, until Tesco take their responsibilities more seriously, the issue, I fear will be ongoing.

Kate said...

Great news about the vole! Have you reported it? If not, there's a page headed 'Reporting' on the Whitchurch Water Vole site, and a brief set of details to fill in. John Harding's summarising the results for the White Lion Meadow area as a graph so we can get an idea of how the population rises and falls over the year. Slightly skewed because this time last year, no one was looking down there. It wasn't till May before we cottoned on. But if close monitoring carries on, we should be able to start seeing trends.