Shopping trolleys worth £12m stolen over 20 years

by Dan Warren

ABANDONED or stolen shopping trolleys have been an ongoing issue at Birchwood for more 20 years, with up to 60 a week disappearing – equating to £12m worth of stolen property.

A group of volunteer trolley angels are helping tackle the problem using a special “TrolleyWise” App with a GPS locating system and a £100 fixed penalty fine has now also been introduced.

The trolleys, when not returned to the trolley bays either end up stored at the offender’s property, or left abandoned in the area where they litter the community, cause environmental damage, block the pathways and spoil the landscape, and are generally an eyesore!

Trolley Angels are a group of volunteers from a multitude of agencies, including residential volunteers, the Warrington Community Safety Partnership consisting of support from Birchwood Shopping Centre, Your Housing Group, and Cheshire Police.

The Trolley Angels project hopes to educate the public not to remove and abandon trolleys as it causes environmental damage, with removal of a trolley also constituting theft. The £100 fixed penalty fine has been introduced to anyone who removes a trolley and ignores the warning letters issued either at a residential or commercial property.

This has resulted in a 60% reduction of removals per week which has had a positive effect on the look of the local community, while the Trolley Angels will continue to assist in reducing this further.

While out on patrol the Trolley Angels also collect litter and rubbish.

Claire Grundy; Deputy Manager of Birchwood Shopping Centre says: “Trolley Angels meet every Friday morning to speak to anyone seen removing a shopping trolley. The volunteers will return trolleys found in the community or use the reporting of abandoned trolley app called TrolleyWise which uses a GPS location of the trolley to enable a collection and return to the appropriate store.

“Trolley Angels also speak to offenders about the secondary issues of removing a trolley, or promote alternatives such as the Trolley Angels shopper!”

For more information on the work of Trolley Angels and how to volunteer, or how report abandoned trolleys in your area, please visit the Facebook page www.Facebook.com/TrolleyAngels or twitter @TrolleyAngelsHQ