A soon-to-be-discontinued bus service has been given a two-week stay of execution so alternative options can be explored.

The complimentary 875 service takes passengers to the Tesco supermarket in Pinner, and runs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays hourly between 10.30am and 3.30pm.

Tesco announced in June that it would end the free service on July 22, arguing that not enough people were using it.

However the withdrawal of the service has now been deferred by two weeks.

Recently retired Maggie Mayes uses the service every week, and says it acts as a “lifeline to pensioners” less mobile than herself.

“We will chain ourselves to the railings if we have to. We’re not going down without a fight,” she said.

“Someone at Tesco said they didn’t know it was so popular. Now they’ve got an extra two weeks to find a way to fix it.”

An unnamed spokesperson said: "We apologise for the inconvenience other customers may experience.


"Unfortunately, despite looking at a variety of options, which included running a reduced, three day offering for a number of years, we have not been able to make the service work."

Mrs Mayes went on to say Tesco were withdrawing the service with a view to discontinuing similar services at other stores around the country.

“Pinner is the pilot for stopping this kind of service. If we save the Pinner service then we save the other stores’ as well,” she explained.

Bosses at Tesco said another service run by Transport for London was available to customers.

However Mrs Mayes said TfL would not be able to provide the same level of service to elderly passengers.

“They’re talking about having TfL drivers but they won’t give a toss about helping 101-year-old Hazel with her bags,” she said.

It is believed there will be a meeting between Tesco and regular users of the service in the coming weeks.