Kirkstall Morrisons has reintroduced coin locks on its shopping trolleys in a bid to reduce dumping in nearby waterways.
WLD has been reporting for the past eight years on the problems with dumped trolleys in Kirkstall Goit and the River Aire.
Nearby residents and councillors have been campaigning for solutions to the problems with dumping, which they fear is an environmental hazard and is unsightly.
Their campaign has led to Morrisons reintroducing the £1 coin locks it used to have on its shopping trolleys until they were removed about nine years ago.
The move has been welcomed by Councillor Hannah Bithell (Lab, Kirkstall) who has been campaigning over the issue for many years.
She said: “I am delighted that on the back of work I have been doing with Morrisons and Trolleywise we now have the £1 locks back on trolleys at Morrisons on Savins Mill Way.
“A couple of months ago there were 13 different trolleys in the watercourses around the Morrisons complex. I had these removed and will continue to have any that end up in watercourses removed.
“This anti-social behaviour is awful for our local ecology and also affects the beauty of our environment.
“Hopefully this change will mean fewer loose trolleys and therefore less opportunity for anti-social behaviour with them.
“There is ongoing work which I will continue to post on social media groups so do keep an eye out for that, including a new and updated Trolleywise app you can report abandoned trolleys on.”
One resident told WLD: “This is fantastic news. We’ve been campaigning for years on this issue. The locks shouldn’t have been removed in the first place.
“It won’t solve the problem by itself but it should improve the situation. It sometimes gets ridiculous with the amount of trolleys dumped in Kirkstall Goit and elsewhere.”
A Morrisons spokesperson confirmed the coin locks have been reintroduced ‘following feedback from the store advising that the trollies are being taken, abandoned and also thrown into the local river’.
“A local councillor also reached out asking what we were doing to tackle this and we agreed that this would be the right move to help protect the local environment,” the spokesperson added.
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So all the shoppers like myself who haven’t used cash or coins for years can no longer shop there as we can’t release the trolley. A great piece of discrimination there. There are other solutions to stopping supermarket trolleys going walkabout such as braking mechanisms for the wheels that make the trolley difficult to move any further if the trolley is taken away from the store boundary.
I can tell from you comment Dave that you’ve gone through life having never experienced genuine ‘discrimination’. It’s disappointing to see you use a word with such gravity in such a flippant and irrelevant way.
A quick look in the dictionary defines ‘discrimination’ as: “the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people, especially on the grounds of ethnicity, age, sex, or disability.”
Not quite sure how refusing to pay a quid for a shopping trolley at Morrisons because YOU have decided not to use cash fits into that but thanks for the entertainment this morning.
I find it hard to believe Dave hasn’t used cash or coins for years because for me it would be impossible to navigate my daily life without them. I wouldn’t be able to buy a paper in the local newsagents without spending at least £5 a time because they have a minimum card spend and I wouldn’t be able to shop at Tesco or Aldi because their trolleys require coins to release them. Despite claims to the contrary many taxi drivers will insist on cash – the company might say you can always use a card but unless you want constant arguments with the actual cabbies you’d be best to carry some cash too. The last time I visited a laundrette (couple of years ago) that was coin operated also. The only people I’ve heard of who don’t carry cash are Dave and the Royal Family. I’m not against the concept of a cashless society just pointing out it’s far from a reality at this stage. We’ve finally got Morrison’s supermarket taking positive steps to address an environmental blight and we should all welcome that instead of inventing reasons to criticise them.
Oh Dave…
“So all the shoppers like myself who haven’t used cash or coins for years can no longer shop there as we can’t release the trolley. A great piece of discrimination there.”
Please please grow up!
Hi Dave why not try googling “Trolley Coin Keyring” and buying a few of them online with your money card? Problem solved.
Who did the councillor get arrange to remove those 13 trollies 2 months ago ? Two months ago myself and Stuart B removed 14 trollies . We regularly go down and clear the Goit and the canal of trollies .usually get a shout from members of LitterFreeLeeds when there is a problem . Had around 150 trollies , baskets and bikes out of the water around there.. I never even heard of the Councillor person . She more than welcome to put her wellies on and come give us a hand next time we go there . Actually do something useful instead of taking the credit for other folks efforts .
By the way … If anyone spots or has a problem give me a shout . We can recover just about anything from dropped car keys to a motorcycle . We use hugely strong magnets . Grapple hooks and winches etc .. We do it as a hobby in our free time . Kinda like what the litter picker groups do
But we drag things out of the waterways .