SUPPORT groups have been set up as residents face a four-week wait for supermarket home deliveries.

Delivery slots for Asda and Tesco in Barrow, along with Sainsbury’s in Ulverston, are in huge demand amid the coronavirus lockdown.

With all the major grocers’ online delivery slots booked up weeks in advance, getting food to those self-isolating was top priority in a call between industry bosses and the environment secretary, George Eustice, on Tuesday.

Supermarket bosses have held discussions with the Government with a view to extending delivery networks by teaming up with taxi companies and takeaways.

One Furness resident told The Mail: “It’s now impossible to make food delivery orders at any supermarket in Barrow. There are a fair number of self-isolating or elderly people who are now reliant upon supermarket deliveries. Asda has a queue to get into the website and it never seems to allow you in. Until late last week they managed to handle the increased demand but now it’s awful.”

Supermarkets are now being given access to a government database to help prioritise food deliveries for elderly and vulnerable shoppers who have been ordered to stay at home.

Simon Fell, Barrow MP, has been contacted by constituents who are vulnerable but who say they have been deemed as not ‘high risk enough’ to qualify.

He said on Twitter: “The Government is launching a scheme to help with this. In the interim, there are local support groups to help you. Call: 01229 357 951 (Ulverston), or 01229 444 407 (Barrow, Askam, Dalton).”