A resident frustrated with 'eyesore' trolleys dumped in a river says somebody needs to take responsibility for the mess.

Five Tesco trolleys are blocking the East Stour River along Ashford Road near the supermarket in Park Farm.

The first trolley appeared before Christmas and since then, Kingsnorth resident Adrian Cackett says they have "multiplied" and been joined by an abandoned traffic cone.

Sludge and weeds have become caught up in the metal bars and the blockage is now starting to impact the flow of the water.

The 78-year-old first reported the issue to TrolleyWise, a company that retrieves and returns abandoned shopping trolleys, in February but did not get a reply.

"I had no response so I then asked Southern Water as they have signs up saying 'pollution spotters needed, let us know if you spot any pollution in waterways'," he said.

"I had no response so I emailed again a couple of months later but still nothing.

"It has since been reported to Tesco and they don't want to know either.

"I feel like nobody wants to take responsibly for it and sooner or later it will build up with all of the rubbish around it and then it will start flooding.

"It's an eyesore. It's a nice little stream, why leave it to pile up with all the muck?"

Mr Cackett suggested adding £1 slots for customers to borrow trolleys might prevent the issue.

But Tesco says it has "recently installed a gatekeeper system to prevent trolleys from leaving the site" in Moat Field Meadow.

Since being contacted by KentOnline, the Environment Agency has confirmed it will send out a team to clean up the trolleys today.

The government body works with TrolleyWise to clean up waterways.

A spokesman from TrolleyWise apologised that the issue had not been dealt with sooner, but explained this type of work is "extremely dangerous" and requires specialist teams.

The company has also said it will now carry out a risk assessment and get the items removed.

A Tesco spokesperson said: “We encourage all customers to return their trolleys once they have finished their shop both for others to use and because we don’t want them to cause any harm to the local environment.

"We use a specialist company called Trolleywise to retrieve our trolleys when they have been taken and we’d ask anyone who sees an abandoned Tesco trolley to use the Trolleywise app to report this, or let their local store know so we can get it back as soon as possible.”