Ratepayers are paying $5000 a month for hundreds of abandoned trolleys to be collected from Rotorua's streets - and the council wants business owners to shoulder some of the cost.

The chairman of the city's ratepayers association blames some members of the homeless community for the problem and wants Kāinga Ora to implement 'trolley hunts”.

However, Kāinga Ora says anyone could be to blame and trolley hunts are not a priority.

Rotorua Lakes Council community wellbeing deputy chief executive Anaru Pewhairangi told Local Democracy Reporting the council is responsible for recovering abandoned trolleys because they are classified as illegal dumping.

Council contractors pick up the trolleys as part of the city cleaning schedule.

'Unfortunately that comes at a cost.”

About 260 trolleys are removed from the inner city each month, costing ratepayers about $5000 per month.

'Trolleys on roadsides are obviously untidy and a hazard and that impacts on how both locals and visitors view and feel about a place.”

Abandoned trolleys also affect perceptions of safety and can harm the environment, he says.

'We will continue to discuss the issue with businesses where trolleys are taken from to try to get them to share some of the burden.”

Pewhairangi says, anecdotally, streets near the Rotorua Central shopping centre and Fenton St have had the most abandoned trolleys over the past couple of years.

Rotorua District Residents and Ratepayers Association chairman Reynold Macpherson says ratepayers are annoyed they are paying for the collection. The association wants the businesses that own the trolleys to reimburse the council for their collection.

'Ratepayers do not have bottomless pockets. Many are struggling.”

Macpherson believes that while it's unfair in some cases, abandoned trolleys are 'strongly associated” with some of the city's homeless people.

He says, in his view, Kāinga Ora needs to enforce stricter tenancy management or needs to organise trolley hunts.

Macpherson believes the council should impound the trolleys until owners pay the collection bill.

Kāinga Ora acting Bay of Plenty regional director Karen Hema suggests it's people from 'all walks of life” who leave shopping trolleys across the city.

Its focus is on rapidly building new public housing, she says, placing whānau into these homes, and supporting customers to live well, as part of the wider community.

'Trolley hunts are most certainly not our focus.”

There are numerous supermarkets in Rotorua's inner city. Local Democracy Reporting contacted Countdown and Foodstuffs. The latter owns the Pak'n'Save and New World chains.

A Countdown spokesperson says it spends $1.5 million a year nationally collecting abandoned trolleys but could not say how much money is invested into trolley collection services in Rotorua.

This also covers the cost of printing messaging on its trolley handles detailing how to report missing trolleys.

'We monitor through customer reporting, and our customer care tracking indicates that Rotorua does not have a higher rate of customer feedback or trolley pick-up requests than other parts of the country.”

Countdown understands abandoned trolleys can be a nuisance and that's why it invests in collection services to lessen the impact on the community.

'We want to keep our local communities tidy and trolley free and ensure that we have enough trolleys available for our customers in our stores.”

Countdown asks people to contact its customer care team to report abandoned trolleys, or to talk to its in-store customer service team.

Foodstuffs spokeswoman Emma Wooster says it's disappointing that trolleys and baskets are being stolen or dumped.

She says most stores have a dedicated team member responsible for looking after trolleys, but sometimes they are taken.

'On these occasions, we ask all members of the public to report a misplaced, or stolen trolley to their local police, or store, so arrangements can be made to retrieve it.”

- Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ on Air.