Waterways are littered with dumped trolleys

Six trolleys have recently been spotted in the River Douglas, near the entrance to Tesco Extra.

Residents in the Bottling Wood area have contacted Wigan Central councillor George Davies about the problem.

He has called on people not to dump the trolleys in the water and has asked the Environment Agency to clear up the river.

Coun Davies said: “The stretch between the Central Park Way bridge and the small bridge at the entrance to Tesco is littered with the trolleys and other items, and making the river an eyesore and a danger if we have a couple of days of rainfall.

“I have called the Environment Agency to move the trolleys and they are to investigate and agreed to move them.”

Coun Davies suspects the trolleys are being dumped in the water by youths.

Coun Davies said: “If they want to dump them, they should leave them on the pathway so they can be taken back safely.”

A Tesco spokesman said the firm works with national trolley retrieval service Trolleywise, which removes more than 400,000 trolleys each year.

He said: “We’re always conscious of our responsibility to the community in Wigan and our colleagues do a huge amount to make sure the environment around our store is pleasant.

“We work with Trolleywise to return any stray trolleys reported to us and apologise if this sometimes takes longer than we would hope.

“This is an issue we take seriously and will always act on when notified.”

A spokesman for the Environment Agency said they were unable to comment on the situation due to the upcoming general election.