Clacton Tesco trolleys found dumped in nature reserve

The Clacton Volunteer Litter Picking team headed to Castlehill Park on Sunday with a view of filling their rubbish bags and tidying up the area.

In total, the cleaning crusaders collected 46 kilograms of waste, including 25 gas bottles which were found flippantly discarded in a country park.

Appallingly, the litter-pickers were also confronted with a pile of 19 Tesco trolleys in Pickers Ditch Meadow – something they have sadly become accustomed to.

Bernard Goldman, 67, who is part of Volunteer River Ninjas and works for Clacton Volunteer Litter Pickers, says the group has found 167 trolleys this year alone.

He said: “We were shocked to see all those trolleys at first but not surprised – over the last six weeks we have been averaging 21 trolleys a week.

“The kids throw them in for fun and people who come on holiday use the trolleys to transport their shopping from Tesco but fail to take them back.

“They are just left on the side of the road or pavement and then they end up in the river – those responsible have no respect for their surroundings or the environment.”

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Mr Goldman, who is standing in next year’s council election, has now suggested supermarkets should take greater action to deter people from stealing their trolleys.

“All supermarkets, particularly Tesco in this case, need to do a lot more to keep their trolleys within their car parks,” added the future Independent candidate.

“It has been suggested they introduce a charge on the trolleys or a brake system which locks when they are taken beyond the car park.

“If we are voted in maybe we can change things from within.”

Michael Talbot, Tendring councillor responsible for environment, praised the efforts of the litter pickers.

“While we work hard to encourage people not to litter, sadly a minority of people do not take pride in their community and cause issues for good-minded citizens," he said.

“Our thanks go to all of the volunteer litter-picker groups which operate in our district – whom we can support by disposing of the waste they collect – and we will continue to engage with supermarkets to encourage them to play an active role in their local community too.”

A Tesco spokesman said: “We’re really sorry to hear this. We encourage everyone visiting our stores to return their trolleys once they have finished their shop for other customers to use.

"We employ a specialist company to return our trollies back to stores and we’d urge anyone who sees an abandoned Tesco trolley to report it using the Trolleywise app or let their local store know so we can get it back as soon as possible.”