Council officials in Hartlepool have joined forces with the town's "big three" supermarkets.

Designated telephone hotlines have been set up with Asda, Tesco and Morrisons to enable people to report trolleys dumped in their neighbourhoods.

The authority said abandoned trolleys were a growing "blight on communities" in the town.

'Working well'

The move in Hartlepool follows a scheme in nearby Middlesbrough in which stores are fined more than �100 for every dumped trolley which has to be removed by council staff.

Ian Burton, Hartlepool Council's environmental enforcement manager, said supermarkets could be held to account under the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005.

"We reserve the right to charge the supermarkets if trolleys go uncollected, but the hotlines are already working well and we are confident that this will not prove necessary," he said.

Hartlepool Mayor Stuart Drummond said: "Dumped trolleys that remain uncollected are an environmental problem. They are an eyesore and a blight on communities."