Crichlow in trolley push

Southport-based Gold Coast City Councillor Dawn Crichlow is to be congratulated for recognising the real environmental problem of dumped shopping trolleys.

The story at right is from today's Gold Coast Sun Newspaper:
I've written her an e-mail in the hopes that she might follow the lead of Frankston Council in Victoria which has made locking shopping trolleys mandatory. Here is the e-mail:

Dear Councillor Crichlow,
I wanted to thank you for your comments in today's Gold Coast Sun on page 7 regarding the dumping of shopping trolleys.

This has been a pollution problem that I have been concerned with for quite sometime. I've even started a blog about it called http://trolleyhell.blogspot.com, where I have photographed dumped trolleys that are an ugly eyesore on our city.

I believe the only real solution is for all shopping trolleys to be the lockable type like you see at Aldis, Spotlight and Ikea. The coin/token shopping trolley reduces dumpage because people want to get their coin or token back.

There are councils in Victoria and New South Wales which have passed bylaws making it mandatory for these supermarkets and shopping centres to supply locking trolleys. Frankston Council is one of them I believe.

Can I encourage you to move a bylaw for the Gold Coast City that would immediately eliminate the problem of shopping trolley 'strays'. This would also be good for the environment because it would reduce the number of vehicle movements required by the trolley collection tractors and by extension council vehicles as per your suggestion of the council removing and storing uncollected trolleys.

Just to let you know, I'm going to publish this letter on my blog and I hope that I can soon add your reply.

Yours faithfully,

Vickie Lester
Green Shopper
TrolleyHell.Blogspot.com

I'll let you know when we've received a response.