Trolley tipping on the increase
PROBLEMS with shopping trolleys in the cut have been with us for years but recently the Birmingham Canal Navigations volunteers have had more than their fair share.
On the first day of the BCN Clean Up, reported in the BCN Society’s magazine Boundary Post, 39 trolleys were recovered from just a short section of the Walsall Canal.
Around 120 trolleys in all were recovered, each worth £130 to £200, before adding the £25 cost of the captive pound security chain.
Magazine editor Bob Fox said: “If we pulled 100 out at only £100 each from the cut during the BCN Clean Up that amounts to £10,000.
“If that were divvied out between the organisations involved in the clean up we would all be that much better off and well rewarded for our efforts in grappling, retrieving, sorting and disposing of the offending items.”
He also referred to the damage a submerged trolley can inflict on a boat’s stern gear and the danger to boaters trying to free it.
BCN Society member and former IWA chairman Ivor Caplan suggested that a strong warning letter from the Canal & River Trust to supermarkets would be appropriate.
Bob Fox added: “It is time that CRT and other interested local and national organisations raise the matter with supermarket CEOs and Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall councils to establish a time-defined action plan to secure trolleys and stop them from being stolen and fly tipped.”