Stanley Jennings and his wife Florrie have had no problems finding a seat on a double deck bus running between Idle and Bradford.

In fact, they have had a choice of 79 places to sit - as they have often been the only passengers on a service brought in by First Bradford after 1,000 people signed a petition for it.

Now the new route for the 642 linking Ravenscliffe and Thorpe Edge estates is being axed because the service has too few passengers using it - in spite of the major campaign last year.

Instead it will revert to its old route via Morrisons supermarket at Five Lane Ends where people can stop to do their shopping.

Today disabled Mr Jennings, 83, of Apperley Road, Bradford, said: "I don't know where all these people are who signed the petition. They certainly aren't on the bus. We have had exclusive use of it on a number of times.

"The most people we have ever seen on it is six and then they only went a couple of stops."

Mr and Mrs Jennings used the service from Ashfield Road to Bradford via the two estates because of hospital appointments. But they say there were many other people who used the old service because it was shorter and more convenient.

The old service ran from Ashfield Road to Morrisons, then into Bradford down Bolton Road.

The amended service goes from Ashfield Road into Thorpe Edge and Ravenscliffe, down to Otley Road and down Church Bank into Bradford.

But, because of its unpopularity, it will return to the old system.

Mr Jennings, a retired security officer, said: "The 642 bus as it was was a lifeline to us and many other people disabled and elderly on Leeds Road, Kipling Court, Greengates and the lower end of Stockhill Road."

Today Gareth Logan of Oakwood House, Thorpe Edge, who helped to organise the petition for the re-routed service, said: "It runs between 10am and 2pm which isn't the right time for a lot of people if they are going to and from school, and it isn't flexible enough."

He said the company had also incurred costs by putting on double deck buses when a smaller bus would have been adequate for passengers from the estates.

Coun Ann Ozolins (Idle, Lib Dem) said: "I am very pleased about the decision. It will be welcomed by a lot of people."

Khadim Hussain, operations director for First Bradford, which runs the service, said: "It will go back to what it was, but we don't know the date yet.

"We are disappointed, but more people were travelling along the old route before it was changed."