A woman has hit out at supermarket giant Morrisons over self-service tills.

Bradford resident Kat Oakenshield has spoken to the T&A after an experience at Five Lane Ends' Morrisons in Idle where a lack of checkout staff upset shoppers who did not want to use self-service tills.

But Morrisons has pointed out that as "more and more people use self-service tills" a store colleague will always be around to help shoppers.

"They're forcing people to use self-service tills," claimed Ms Oakenshield, who explained: “One day I went to Morrisons at Five Lane Ends for some veg at 5.30pm. People were queuing down two aisles as there were only three tills manned. There were 15 people with baskets and full trollies.

“Everyone in the queue was complaining about the lack of staff, one staff member suggested we use the self-service machines. Nobody left the queue to do this. Rather than moving, many people were loudly complaining the supermarkets were trying to force us to use these machines. I paid for my groceries and left.

“At 8.30pm, I realised that I had forgotten a couple of items so I went back. I got to the checkouts and not one till was manned. I asked the young lady at the self-service if she would put my items through. She... said it was self-service only. An elderly couple waiting behind me heard that we had to serve ourselves, so they left a full trolley and walked out. I too dumped my items and left.

“Some people don't have anyone to talk to for days and that small interaction with a checkout person or someone waiting in the queue may be the only people they get to interact with.

"A lot of older people don't how to use the tills, so there should always be at least one person on checkout in the evening.

"Anybody can stay at home and press buttons on a computer, but for some people it makes their day to speak to someone at the till. It's so unfair to be stuck inside all the time."

A Morrisons spokesperson said: "We are committed to providing a choice for our customers on how they want to checkout and pay for their shopping.

"Over recent years more and more customers have chosen to use self-checkout options and in some stores we are making some changes so there's a mix of payment points, including larger checkouts for bigger trolley shops.

"Self-scan means we are able to have more pay points open more of the time improving service speed, but we will always have colleagues around to support our customers and to operate serviced tills for those who wish to be served this way."