Tesco axes free supermarket bus

A free bus service to a Shropshire Tesco store is to be scrapped, in a move which has been described as a

"bombshell" by one of its regular users.

The supermarket giant runs the daily service from parts of the county to Tesco Extra in Shrewsbury.

But bosses say not enough people are using it and they have decided to end the service from today.

The service runs to Church Stretton, Tilstock Crescent, Kinnerley, Ellesmere, Upton Magna, Market Drayton, Eaton Constantine and Minsterley in addition to parts of Shrewsbury.

Mary Edwards, 67, from Baschurch, said she had used the current service since it started operating in 2004.

And she said it was used by a lot of elderly people, including some in their 80s and 90s. She said: "This came as a bombshell. People have asked me what they are going to do.

"It's goes around everyday all over Shropshire and this is a blow. I'm not sure what we are going to do.

"If I used the regular bus service I would need to get a number of buses to get to the supermarket and cross busy roads.

"It was very convenient for me. We knew where it would pick up and they would take us straight to the shop."

A spokeswoman for Tesco confirmed the service would be ending this week with no service from Monday.

She said: "We test this three or four times a year to see how many people are using it and how happy they are with the service.

"We found that although people were happy with it there were so few customers. Even on a daily basis there weren't that many.

"We felt the money could be put to better use in the store and helping customers in other ways."