A STORE is urging shoppers to put up a trolley good effort today in a special amnesty for charity.

ASDA at Clayton Green, near Preston, is desperate to recover the staggering amount of shopping trolleys that go missing from the store each year.

Trolleys can cost between £70-£100 to make. Five go missing there a week -- 249 in total in the past year -- and the store recognises they are a blot on the landscape.

Now bosses are staging a Trolley Amnesty on Thursday, August 15 and have pledged £1 to local charities for each trolley returned.

In addition, ASDA has also launched a special Trolley Patrol which will travel streets nearby to collect and return rogue trolleys to the store.

Customers are also being urged to do some trolley spotting -- and if they see an ASDA trolley on their travels, to take note of where it is and inform colleagues at the store's customer service desk.

Jamie Downs, general store manager, said: "We continue to make every effort to stop trolleys going walkabout, but it appears to no avail. We're looking at alternative security measures as discarded trolleys are expensive to replace and also make the local landscape untidy.

"Where they go is beyond me. We've heard of people transforming them into barbecues, some being shipped to France and others being 'features' for flowers in people's gardens.

"All people have to do is to leave the trolley in the store's entrance in the area marked Trolley Amnesty and for each one returned we will donate a pound for local charities."

ASDA says it will regularly repeat the exercise if it is a success.