ASDA has said it will restore its unmanned food bank donation points in its supermarkets following public outcry.

The donation points will be returned a week after it was announced that stores nationally would be scrapping the unmanned collections in favour of having volunteers from charities on hand at stalls.

ASDA said it had brought in the change to give a "fair and consistent" approach to all charities by only allowing charity collections to be made in person.

However, Grahame Lucas, manager of Worcester Foodbank, based in Carden Close, said he was "sad and disappointed" to see the loss of one of its main city centre donation points scrapped while readers also disagreed with the decision.

Customers had been able to leave food and toiletries for the food bank at the city's Asda store, in St Martin's Quarter, Silver Street, for the past two years with the charity collecting around two and a half tonnes of donations each year.

But thanks to overwhelming support from customers the supermarket has overturned its decision and the unmanned points are now set to return.

An Asda spokesperson said: “As a retailer who is committed to supporting our local communities we never intended to stop food banks or similar local charities collecting in our stores.

“We made some changes to our community programme around unmanned collections in the belief that this would benefit the many local good causes who collect in our stores.

“On this occasion our customers and colleagues have told us they understand our intentions, but prefer us to continue to give charities more options to maximise donations.

"We are therefore reinstating unmanned collection points.

“Asda plays an important role in the communities we serve and we look forward to continuing to support many more local charities and good causes.”