THIS WEEK IN 1983: Tracking down a £250,000 saving

The city centre Scouts ‘softly softly’ detecting squad moved in 15 months ago when abandoned Tesco trolleys were becoming a serious nuisance and costing the store thousands of pounds per year.

Abandoned trolleys had littered the streets, threatening the safety of motorists and elderly pedestrians. Children used the trolleys as go-karts.

At one time the problem was so bad that Portsmouth City Council impounded the trolleys and charged the supermarkets £1 for the return of each trolley.

But the problem was soon halved by the 48th St Faith’s Troop at Landport, pictured.

While most of Portsmouth’s would still slumber in their beds on a Sunday morning, the Scouts combed the streets and alleyways for missing trolleys.

City councillor at the time, Mike Hancock, confirmed that the troop had collected over 6,000 trolleys, with each one being worth around £40.

‘The Scouts bring back about 100 trolleys a week,’ said the general manager at Tesco’s superstore at Crasswell Street, Landport, whose store employed seven full-time staff solely to tackle the problem of trolleys which went missing.