POPPY appeal collectors have hit out at ‘heartless’ supermarket bosses at Aldi for refusing to allow them to raise cash inside their store.

Len Myerscough, 78, said he had been left appalled at the attitude of managers at the new store in Heys Lane, Great Harwood.

In previous years Mr Myerscough said that the Royal British Legion had collected over £2,000 from generous customers at the Co-op store in the town.

But the Co-op is currently closed after it was taken over by Morrison's.

The new supermarket is not set to open until later next month.

He said: “The vast majority of all of our collections came from the Co-op. Now it is closed we wrote to the new Aldi shop but they wrote back to say we couldn't collect in the store.

“I am nearly 80 and my fellow collectors are of a similar age. All we need is somewhere indoors where we can collect.

”We have a lot of support in the town and a supermarket is the ideal place to position ourselves in the run-up to Remembrance Sunday.”

Mr Myerscough said that collection jars have been put in place at shops and pubs throughout the town.

And in his 12 years as a collector he said he had never encountered any obstacles.

The German-owned supermarket opened in Great Harwood earlier this year.

He said: “We asked for permission to put the tins in place and to set up a little table in the foyer, in the same way that we did at the Co-op.

“They said that we could only collect on the 4th and 5th and we had to be outside. I'm too old to stand around outside in November.

“I think they are being very mean. It is Great Harwood people buying their products and I think they would be disgusted with the way the Royal British Legion is being treated.”

An Aldi spokesperson said: “The Great Harwood store always allows representatives of the Royal British Legion to collect for the Poppy Appeal. We ask that they collect at the store entrance where there is a protective overhead canopy, because there is not enough room in-store to set up a stand. The dates were suggested because none were requested and these are our busiest dates in November, and would create the maximum footfall for the collectors’ appeal.”