A year-long campaign for a shopper bus service has suffered a major setback after supermarket chiefs refused to help with running costs.

Campaigners in Allerton and Lower Grange, Bradford, had collected nearly 1,000 signatures calling for better access to Morrisons on Thornton Road and teamed up with Bradford Community Transport to run the service.

But the plans fell flat this week when the Bradford-based supermarket told them they would be unable to provide half of the £52,000 anticipated costs for the first year.

Campaign manager Maggi Chapman said: "It's not as if we are asking for something for nothing. The community were going to pay a fee to use the transport and we just need Morrisons to help with the running costs until we see if the service can run on its own."

She said people had no choice but to pay for taxis to get to the store as they couldn't afford to run cars.

A Morrisons spokesman today said the decision had been taken after careful consideration and that the wider transport needs of the community should be addressed by the district's bus operators.

She said: "We are sorry to disappoint the campaigners but trust that they will at least be able to appreciate our position, given that we are supermarket operators and not public transport providers."

The campaign has been backed by health staff and poverty groups on the grounds that lack of transport was leading to poor nutrition.