There could be a rise in abandoned shopping trolleys left around the town, the council has warned.

At a meeting of Witham Town Council, councillor Steve Goodfellow said he had seen an increase in the number of trolleys abandoned.

He added: “For some years, Morrisons supermarket has operated coin slots for their trolleys.

“However, for some reason, they are stopping that now and trolleys have started appearing around the town.

“I came across three when I wasn’t really looking for them and that was just in a small area.

“It’s ridiculous.”

A Morrison spokesman confirmed they had removed the coin slots from the trolleys in Witham because customers said they found them “inconvenient and time consuming”.

They added: “Feedback so far has been overwhelmingly positive. As soon as a member of the public alerts us to an abandoned trolley, the store team will collect it immediately."