You're right, it's a conservation of
Water Vole habitat issue.
Water Voles burrows are protected by law, but repeatedly dragging trolleys out over banks is causing damage (the most active
Water Vole colony near me lives in a ditch outside a supermarket, by the car park).
The store has known about the trolleys being a problem for ages; after all, the trolleys are highly visible as people walk past, and there have been up to 15 trolleys in there at once, all with accumulated debris around them.
I
do think it's the store's responsibility, whether at local or central level: in this case, the trolleys are right next to a youth centre, and a dark car park and a steep bank are too much of a temptation. You might as well give a toddler a hammer.
I don't want to have a go at the store in general, just ask them to install coin-release trolleys so that the kids won't take them as readily. This is what I was asking for info on and I perhaps should have clarified my request. I wondered whether anyone else had managed to get a local store to change in this way.
I'm aware that Tesco last year were prosecuted by the Environment Agency for polluting the River Chelmer with trolleys, for example. I presume that store now has coin-release trolleys?