Trolley Advice

I received this comment to one of my posts, and it's worth a post of its own, I think.

Wonderful blog.
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I have been trying to get trolleys removed from the Stockport stretches of the River Mersey, Tame, and Goyt. Here the problems are considerable, they are thrown in near the town centre, but any flood, or build up of debris tends to push them further downstream. Those that I can see tend to collect just below the weirs. The Mersey runs BELOW the town centre for about 1/2 a mile, and there is undoubtedly a storeful of trolleys there waiting to be pushed out downstream of the shopping centre.
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Removal of these trolleys is admittedly difficult, due to very inaccessible banks. I have attacked via my local councillor and by direct letters to Tesco, Sainsbury and ASDA, but have gained little ground so far. Any advice that you might have would be appreciated.
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For most of my life these rivers, and in particular the Mersey and Tame have been polluted to a disgraceful extent, but recently the water quality has rocketed. I have now, in a six month period seen, IN STOCKPORT! dippers, kingfishers, mink, goldeneye, goosanders, etc, etc. Fish , especially chub abound, although it surprised me to see them still there after the river has been in one of its very heavy floods. There were some very interesting footprints in the mud yesterday..I don't know whether they are mink (probably), or dare I hope for it: otter. Wonderful, but I would much rather see the kingfishers perched on the tree branches, rather that the trolleys.
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I did see your voles on TV...and maybe that program in itself helped with the trolley removal. ASDA in Rochdale, 20 miles from here, was fined 8000 pounds for trolleys in the river Roche, and now employs a company to remove them within a day. I hope to achieve this in Stockport. I include my email if you might be able to offer trolley removal advice.
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So, firstly, thanks, and well done on all the amazing sightings (except for the mink, of course!). I was watching yesterday a video clip of an otter sighted in the middle of Edinburgh: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/7050878.stm and you hear reports all the time these days of rivers which are cleaner than they've been for decades. I think people are finally wising up to the need to look after our wildlife spaces - though there's still a lot of work to be done.
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As for advice on how to get supermarkets to take responsibility for their trolleys, I can only say what's happened to me. As you'll see on this blog, I first approached my local store back in December 2006. My argument was that installing coin-release trolleys would massively reduce the problem, if not stop it altogether (we have four other supermarkets in our town, all with coin-release systems, and you never ever see any of those trolleys loose).
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The managers I've spoken to have always been polite and sympathetic, but made it clear they don't have the power to make decisions about re-fits. They say they've been passing my comments on to the appropriate departments. Those departments, though, haven't seemed to want to take any action, so that's why I've turned to the Environment Agency. The EA is a huge organization, and it's important to locate the correct department, ie one that has the power to act. In my case this turned out to be the Environment Management office, who now at least have a dialogue going with the supermarket.
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Having dated photographic evidence, and records of how long trolleys are allowed to stay in the water, is useful, especially if those photos clearly show the store's logo.
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The bottom line is, the law is being broken. Under the Water Resources Act 1991 it is "an offence to knowingly permit polluting or solid matter to enter controlled water" and the Environment Agency can take enforcement action, such as the fine you mentioned. In the special case of White Lion Meadow, a second law is also relevant, that of the destruction/disturbance of a theatened species' habitat: http://www.derbyshirewildlifetrust.org.uk/index.php?section=watervole:law , which means that the act of dragging the trolleys out is as harmful as their being allowed to sit and clog up. In other words, trolleys just should NOT be going in the water.
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If you do approach the EA - and I've found them terrifically helpful - I'd recommend sending copies of any correspondence to the supermarkets involved, at a local and a central level. It's courteous, and you may find the stores wanting to take recommendations on board before things get to the stage of being fined.
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Wildlife aside, in these days of increased flooding it's especially important our waterways are kept as clear as possible. We all benefit from a clean and healthy environment.
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Good luck!