Marina Shaw, of Moubray Grove, returns abandoned trolleys from the Scotstoun area on a weekly basis.

But the problem took a more sinister twist when one almost caused an accident as she drove home one night.

She turned into Kirkliston Road from the A8000 to find a trolley on the road. Marina managed to swerve to avoid it at the last minute and then made her way into Scotstoun Avenue only to find another trolley, again abandoned in the middle of the road.

While youngsters may have been behind these acts, Marina believes if Tesco took more responsibility for its trolleys, such instances would not occur.

This week after rounding up nine more trolleys, which included two from the burn at Rosebery Avenue and four from the Scotstoun Grove Shopping Centre, Marina said "enough is enough."

A keen environmentalist and a CleanFerry member, Marina said: "It is time for Tesco to take responsibility for its trolleys. They are not addressing the problem in Queensferry."

She added: "What sort of signal does it send to tourists who come to Queensferry and see trolleys lying at the side of the road or in burns."

Marina, on her travels around the Scotstoun area, finds an average four trolleys a week and returns them to the store. But when she recently pleaded with the local store management over its responsibility to retrieve the trolleys it fell on deaf ears.

She called on Tesco to look at charging shoppers for the use of trolleys, a practice adopted at many supermarkets nationwide but was told a decision was made not to put in a coin-operated system at the Queensferry store.

While Marina understands Tesco cannot be blamed for shoppers taking trolleys away from the store, she feels a Tesco employee could, once a week, walk round the area to retrieve them rather than leave it to a member of public.

And she wants members of the public to be responsible for returning trolleys if they do take their shopping home.

Marina can, however, still see the funny side. She said: "I get looks from people in the street and they ask me if I am doing community service as they always see me picking up rubbish and collecting trolleys. It is just that I am proud to live in Queensferry and want it to look its best."

A police spokesman said: "We are aware that trolleys are taken from Tesco from time to time but it becomes an offence when people are deliberately putting others in danger by placing them on roads. We will take action if we catch anyone carrying out this act."

Despite several attempts to get a response from Tesco, no one was available for comment.