The Wombles of Walcot are £600 better off (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

The Wombles of Walcot are £600 better off

ABANDONED shopping trolleys which have blighted a Swindon neighbourhood for years are being cleared by an army of young Wombles.

While the classic children's TV characters kept Wimbledon Common litter free, these Wombles are busy sprucing up Parks and Walcot.

So far, the junior street wardens have collected 300 Tesco trolleys left on pavements, in ditches and in play areas.

For each one returned to the supermarket's Ocotal Way store, the youngsters get £2 credit, which they use to buy food and soft drinks for social nights.

The scheme has been so successful that there have been calls for it to be copied across the borough.

Trolleys are also a problem in parts of Penhill, where they are frequently dumped in the brook in the valley, and in Haydon Wick, which has suffered since the opening of Asda Wal-Mart.

Coun Justin Tomlinson (Con, Abbey Meads) wants to see all Swindon supermarkets to adopt a similar scheme. He said: "I am extremely impressed by the Tesco initiative. Trolleys are a problem in Haydon Wick, where they are abandoned in alleyways and left in hedges.

"They make the area look run-down, which affects people's quality of life.

"I would like to see all supermarkets across town offer youngsters £2 for every trolley brought back."