By GEORGIA WESTGARTH
DOZENS of shopping trolleys are being neatly collated in disabled car parks at the entrance to Safeway at Cranbourne Park shopping centre.
Narre Warren resident, Brian Foley said the centre is making a habit of it.
“There’s very limited parking there anyway and it seems Safeway are using it as an informal loading dock,” Mr Foley said.
“The trolleys will sit there for a couple of hours, I have to push them back into the trolley queue myself,” he said.
For more than a month Mr Foley and his wife have been struggling to find a disabled car park each week at the Safeway entrance.
“There are usually 30 to 40 trolleys in a disabled car park and there are only half a dozen disabled parks, when a park isn’t available it’s very difficult – where are we supposed to park to go back and move the trolleys, it becomes a catch 22,” he said.
Mr Foley’s wife has two artificial hips and arthritis in her spine and the couple regularly shop at the centre.
“There’s a proper trolley queue only about 30 metres away, I’m sure the Safeway trolley collectors are putting them there in neat lines, I think they are being really lazy.
“They’re doing nothing about the trolleys, I complained to Safeway a couple of weeks ago and they said ‘that’s no good’ and would come and take a look, I waited around but no one came,” he said.
Mr Foley explained that the disabled car parks are at a premium and wants the current system changed.
“If you park there and don’t have a disabled parking permit an officer will book you and I don’t think its fair shopping trolleys can be there,” he said.
City of Casey Community Development Director, Sophia Petrov, said the council is not aware of shopping trolleys being stacked in the disabled parking bays.
“Council has issued 279 infringements for offences detected in designated disabled parking areas from 1 January 2015 to 8 June 2015,” Ms Petrov said.
“However shopping trolleys are not a part of that list.”
Ali O’Shea from Cranbourne Park said the team at Safeway are responsible for the collection and maintenance of trolleys.
“We will raise this issue with the team at Safeway,” Ms O’Shea said.
