A SWINDON supermarket has been accused of not doing enough to clear up abandoned shopping trolleys.

According to councillor Ian Dobie (Con, Haydon Wick) the problem of trolleys being dumped in the area has become horrendous since Asda Wal-Mart opened on Ocotal Way 18 months ago.

And he has called for the supermarket to use new trolley technology to eliminate the problem.

He said: "Trolleys were always a problem, even when we just had the little Safeway supermarket in Haydon Wick.

"Since the new Orbital Retail Park opened the proliferation of Asda Wal-Mart trolleys has been horrendous.

"My understanding was when they were building Asda Wal-Mart they were going to put in some sort of special trolley loop.

"This means the trolleys have a special wheel in them which means the wheel locks if they go beyond a certain point.

"They haven't got it and there's no safeguard in place at all lost trolleys must cost them a fortune.

"I have seen four trolleys this morning in the space of a few hundred yards."

He said residents whose homes border this area are finding trolleys shoved in their gardens and blocking footpaths.

"These are people who have paid a lot of money for their houses," he said.

The system Coun Dobie is referring to is called Cartronics which was first introduced to UK supermarkets two years ago.

It works by surrounding a supermarket with an underground wire which emits an electrical signal.

When a trolley goes over a wire, the signal causes one of the trolley wheels to lock.

Asda UK spokeswoman Rachel Fellows said: "It is an enormous car park and used by a variety of retailers.

"In terms of ring fencing the Asda car park with this system, it would be very difficult at this site.

"We did not have the Cartronics system when this supermarket was at the planning stage.

"We would urge people not to take trolleys off the site it is costly for us and detrimental to the environment."

She said the trolleys cost £100 a time to replace, but she did not have any specific details about missing trolley numbers.

The checkout manager at Asda Wal-Mart, Frank Stevens, said: "In store we encourage any customers to report abandoned trolleys.

"Every two weeks we send our own van out and go around the local community to collect trolleys from rivers, streams, back gardens and anywhere else we find them.

"Any customer can phone us up and we will collect a trolley for them."

The number to call to report a missing trolley is Swindon 707770.

The Asda Wal-Mart store costs £25 million to build and employs about 1,000. At 150,000 sqft it is one of the largest supermarkets in the South West.