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When I visit family I fish a section of the Warks Avon in Rugby. The river there has received alot of abuse over the years, including a flood protection/allieviation scheme. It went from a lush river to a stone sided 'drain' and finally nature has recaptured these banks and it is looking much better. The biggest problem with it in recent times is dumping, especially trollies from an adjacent Tesco. I looked over a small bridge, not 100 yards from Tesco and counted about 20 trollies. There were more up and down the banks.

This issue got me thinking because as well as impacting the aquatic environment, we are likely to be the ones who notice it. After all who's on the banks more as a rule?

I contacted Tesco to find out their policy with regard to trollies. I may contact the other chains but I thought I'd like to hear some thoughts from the site, it might give me more direction, or perhaps others may be interested in trying to do something about trolley dumping. I also contacted the Environment Agency to find out theirs.

This is what Tesco told me:

Quote:

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Thank you for your email. You were asking about our trolley policy.
If a customer calls Dundee and reports an abandoned trolley then the store receive a note to uplift it. This they can do up to a mile from the store.
If the trolley is in an unsafe location then the store complete a from send it to head office and we arrange uplift by a 3rd party.
We have locking devices in 351 stores, 244 sites with locking wheels
We have off site retrieval in 20 stores
We have an additional 30 stores to have locking devices this year

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(Source Email)

So Tesco will try to retrieve trollies but only 1 mile from their store. If it's unsafe they will call in a vendor, which I'd guess they are loathed to do because it costs them money? Perhaps we should be making them pay up for this? They are after all making alot of money from people like us:

Quote:

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Supermarket giant Tesco has become the first UK retailer to unveil annual profits of more than £2bn. The UK's biggest supermarket chain posted underlying pre-tax profits of £2.03bn ($3.83bn), up 20.5% on 2004.

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(Source BBC News)

This is the response from the Environment Agency:

Quote:

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Thank you for your enquiry dated 6 March regarding Policy Documentation

I have looked into this and have found that there is no specific policy set out by the Environment Agency on this subject. Although you will be pleased to know that the local authority is responsible for these types of incidents and they may have some guidelines in place for this type of thing.

I trust you find this information useful.

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(Source Email)

So the Environment Agency has no clear policy and defers responsibility to the local authority. I am going to contact my local authority next to see if they have a policy, but I won't hold me breath.

I wonder what we pay the Environment Agency a license for? They don't seem too interested in dumping in their waterways.

I suppose quite a few people are thinking 'I don't really care.' Fair enough but alot of people do care and I am wondering what we might be able to do to see our waterways kept clear by the people who by taking our money must surely take some form of responsibility.

Ken