DUMFRIES residents growing frustrated at the number of shopping trollies being dumped in the River Nith have started logging incidents online.
Users of the ‘Fix My Street’ site, which automatically sends reports to the council, have been flagging-up the issue in an attempt to bring it to the local authority’s attention.
And a map of the town reveals Lincluden, where there are a number of supermarkets, as a hotspot for trollies being abandoned in the river.
Upon reporting a sighting this week, one user wrote: “ I saw it this morning, maybe thrown off the bridge. Note that this is probably the sixth trolley in the last couple of weeks in this one stretch of river. They often come from the nearby shops.
“Unless something proactive is done, the situation will just worsen. The council says it hasn’t the resources to patrol all the areas regularly, hence so much rubbish all over the county by footpaths and roads and lay-bys and verges. But if that is the case it has to do something to deter this behaviour.”
And in a separate recent report, it was claimed that a trolley had been left on the river bank by a group of youths half-full of rubbish.
Furthermore, another user alerted the local authority to a shopping cart which had been tied to water pipes below the A75 bridge near Lincluden to make a swing.
They said they were subsequently emailed by the council and informed it had been cut down.
However, they added in an update to the original report: “I went along today to discover they had then just left it there, as litter, and walked away. Unbelievable. The other piece was missing, maybe thrown into the river in the meantime.
“I am shocked that workers would think the intention of the report was solely to cut down a broken trolley: and then just leave it there. That’s like someone reporting broken glass, and the council sweeping it into a pile, then leaving it by the footpath.
“Even if there was some vague plan for someone to collect it a few days later, that is stupid – in the meantime the kids will have moved it, or thrown it in the river.
“Then I discovered another two trolleys left on beaches nearby, which the council never checks.”
Dumfries and Galloway Council were approached for comment.
