Rising numbers of abandoned trolleys around the town centre have annoyed residents so much they've made lists of prime offenders and sent them to the council.

Street cleansing and services manager Ian Doyle sent out letters to 16 supermarkets, on June 1, asking them to collect loose trolleys.

If they do not, the trolleys will be seized and impounded, under a joint initiative by Kingston Council and Kingston Town Centre Management.

"I'm looking for co-operation and have already had a couple of positive replies," said Mr Doyle.

"The Environmental Protection Act 1990 gives us the power to seize trolleys if supermarkets don't pick them up."

Officers and town centre rangers will be keeping a lookout for abandoned trolleys and reporting them to the council, who will give supermarkets 24 hours to collect them. If they ignore requests they will have to pay £30 a trolley to get them back, to cover removal and storage costs.

"It's not very attractive to have shopping trolleys left around the place, anybody who wanders around Kingston at 7am at the weekend will see what I mean," said Mr Doyle.