A conservation volunteer has criticised supermarket giant Tesco for not collecting trolleys more than a week after they were reported.

Ten days after volunteers fished out trolleys from the River Ock, in Abingdon, Tesco has still not picked them up. And, in the meantime, two of the trolleys have been thrown back into the water.

Eleanor Dangerfield, of Masefield Crescent, Abingdon, was one of 140 volunteers from local churches who spent the weekend litter-picking in hotspots across the town.

The volunteers used a hook and rope to pull four trolleys from the river, at Ock Walk, and Mrs Dangerfield, 60, reported the find to Tesco the next day, asking the company to remove them from the path.

But, five days later, she said she became so frustrated she took one of them into the superstore in Marcham Road herself.

She said: "The reaction of the staff on customer service when a dirty trolley covered in dried up water weed was wheeled into the store was rather like that of chickens when a fox gets into the hen coop.

"Needless to say, by the next morning, two of the remaining trolleys were back in the river.

"It's very dispiriting. We are getting really fed up of the trolleys that are around - and the ones that are dumped in the Ock."

Tesco spokesman Adam Fisher said magnetic strips and coin-operated trolleys were used as a way to prevent them leaving car parks in some stores, but called these a "last resort".

He said: "Trolleys cannot be retrieved immediately, unfortunately, as we tend to get contractors out to collect them.

"In some cases it can take up to a week, or so.

"We apologise and we try to collect them as soon as we can. It would be really helpful if people did not take them away."