Palmerston (Public Places) By-Laws 2001

(1) A person who leaves a shopping trolley in a public place commits an offence.

Penalty: $3 000.

(3) An authorised person may remove and impound a shopping trolley left unattended in a public place and is, within 7 days after the removal and impoundment, to:

(a) serve on the owner a notice in writing of the impoundment and place of impoundment; or

(b) if the owner cannot be found or the owner's name cannot be ascertained – certify to the clerk the reason for failure to serve a notice referred to in paragraph (a).

(4) A certificate under clause (3)(b) is evidence of the matters set out in it.

(5) After the expiration of 28 days after the impoundment, the clerk is to cause notice of the impoundment to be published in a newspaper generally circulating in the municipality and, if the owner of the trolley does not respond within 7 days after that publication of the notice, is to publish the notice a second time.

(6) If the owner of the trolley has not, within 28 days after service of a notice under clause (3)(a) or the later of the publications under clause (4), paid to the council all expenses relating to the removal, custody and reasonable maintenance of the trolley, the council may advertise for sale and sell the trolley or, if it is not convenient to sell the trolley, dispose of it.

(7) Any proceeds of the sale of a shopping trolley are to be applied in payment of:

(b) costs of removal, custody and reasonable maintenance before the sale of the shopping trolley,

and the balance, if any, is to be paid to the person who was the owner of the shopping trolley at the time of the removal and impoundment.

(8) If, after the expiry of 6 months after the date of the sale of a shopping trolley sold under clause (6), proceeds from the sale of the shopping trolley remain unclaimed by the owner or by a person acting on behalf of the owner, the money is to be paid into the council's general fund.