A pensioners' group has called for a proposed bus loop recommended by city centre planners to be put in place immediately.

Consultants have recommended there should be a loop between Market Street and John Street, with mini-interchanges at Cheapside and Westgate.

They say the project would help shoppers get to the heart of the city's retail core.

Khadim Hussain, operations director for bus company First, confirmed talks had begun on proposals put forward by Bradford Council.

John Mawdesley, transport representative for Bradford and District Older People's Alliance (BOPA), said such a service was needed "now".

He said: "BOPA has been advocating such a service for some time and we feel that it is needed now rather than delaying it until the city centre rebuilding work is completed in 2008 or so.

"Older people need something to get them round the city centre, especially as there are so few shops at the bottom end of town. Elderly people who arrive at the Interchange either have an uphill walk or can get a bus which will drop them off in John Street, by Morrisons. But that still leaves them with a walk.

"People have even been contacting me to say that they are finding it better to go to Halifax, Huddersfield and Keighley because they are flatter."

But Councillor Chris Greaves, chairman of Bradford Passenger Consultative Committee, said he did not think a bus loop could be implemented before 2008.

Coun Greaves, also Bradford's representative on the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Authority, said: "We are talking about more than a bus going round in a circle.

"To actually create the mini-interchanges will take some time and 2008 is not very far away.

"We have got all these design ideas emerging at the moment as the Will Alsop masterplan develops.

"But the bus loop will have to go where people want it to go. And because of the construction going on I do not think we can do it any quicker.

"But it is vital to transport people up to the top end of the city and not to have a stream of people going to one area and not going to the other."

Planners have pointed out that Market Street is a key link between the top end of the city and Broadway.