Trolleys tamed

By Melissa Grant
PAKENHAM’S shopping trolley angel Kevin Lia is set to be relieved of much of his community-minded duty, with shoppers set to be pushing coin-operated ones come July.
The Cardinia Shire Council recently adopted a new local law to make shopping trolleys with coin operated locks compulsory at all supermarkets with more than 25 trolleys.
Retailers have until 1 July to comply with the law.
Mr Lia and friend Kelvin Rees have been gathering lost trolleys from around the shire for the last three years with a ride-on mower and trailer , but aren’t ready to give up their day jobs just yet.
“There will still be some work,” Mr Lia said.
“I don’t know if people will worry about their $2 or not.”
The pair have plucked shopping trolleys from far and wide and from some obscure places during their three-year crusade to minimise what has long proved an eyesore around the town.
Mr Lia, 76, said the town’s waterways were the most popular dumping spots for those not wanting to return the trolleys to the shops.
“I pulled 40 out of the Toomuc Valley Creek last year,” he said.
“During the drought the creek went down… some of them were rusted which showed they had been there for a while.”
Mr Lia said it was difficult to estimate the average number of shopping trolleys he gathered each week.
“Some weeks you get hardly any, then some weeks I’m really busy… one week I collected 50,” he said.
Although Mr Lia has mixed feelings about the new local laws, they have been welcomed by the town’s supermarkets which have long suffered at the hands of trolley thieves.
Pakenham Ritchies Super IGA store manager Ben Vandenberg said it was “sensational” that coin-operated trolleys would be made compulsory and hoped it would minimise the number which regularly went missing from his store.
“We lost 40 within eight months last year,” he said.
“If they’re (shoppers) lazy they will leave their trolley lying around but if they want their $2 they’ll bring them back.”
Mr Vandenberg said wandering trolleys had cost the Main Street store dearly over the years with prices ranging from $80 for a refurbished trolley to $110 for new ones.
At Monday night’s council meeting, Central Ward councillor Kate Lempriere said July 1, when the laws officially come into force, would be a great day for Pakenham.
“We’ve had an ongoing problem of trolleys ending up in all kinds of places,” she said.
“They’re everywhere; they’re a nuisance; they’re ugly.”
Cardinia mayor Bill Ronald thanked Mr Lia, who attended the meeting, for his hard work over the last three years.
“You’re an absolute legend,” he said.