By Frustration builds as masses of Morrisons shopping trollies pulled out of Freshney River
Local residents have expressed their anger and frustration after masses of Morrisons shopping trollies have been regularly dumped in the River Freshney.
James Elliott, well known by locals as Canoe River Cleaner, set up a group of volunteers known as the “Freshney Comrades.”
Their mission is to each keep clear a portion of the Freshney chalk stream, and report any large items such as trolleys to James and his helpers to remove immediately.
The group said they cannot get over the “sheer scale” of trollies retrieved after spending hours pulling them out and wheeling them back to the store.
Lyndsey Downes, who is one of the Comrades, posted on Facebook that Morrisons should do more to prevent the issue from occuring. She was then contacted by a store manager and told they would happily retrieve the trollies themselves if they were alerted.
This advice has now changed to ask locals to report the trollies to a national company (Trolleywise) via an ap, who will then remove them.
Lyndsey said: “One day, a group of us, including our children dragged two trollies all the way back from Laceby and left them at the door of their warehouse, telling staff, only the very next day to find the same two dumped again. We have been to store after closing to return trollies and can see that they’re not even secured so there’s really no wonder.
“We can not believe that Morrisons are now asking us to report to a huge national company to remove them, when James would be willing to do it for a small donation to keep him going to protect our river. We have found they don’t collect them efficiently and many are there still weeks after, when James could get them the same or next day? The Freshney is a rare chalk stream and many of us are giving up our spare time to keep the area looking beautiful for everyone but without the support of large companies such as Morrisons, who have a legal duty to do their part, our job is even harder!
“I wish Morrisson’s would work with us and not against us, we want to work with them. I have sent a formal complaint and didnt even get a reply. I have emailed their CEO and await a response but it really isn’t good enough. In the last four weeks I would say we have removed or reported over 20 trollies from our river, all have come from the Morrissons store.”
James Elliott added: “I have been doing this on a completely voluntary basis for the past year and if, moving forward, we can hash out a scheme to benefit us both we can try and make it sustainable.”
Morrisons have been contacted for a statement.
