A DEVELOPER has claimed community support for its plans to open a Hungry Horse pub in a Cowley shopping area.

Templars Retail Park owner Quadrant Estates has requested permission from Oxford City Council to change an empty restaurant space into a pub and expand its floorspace.

The unit is one of three restaurant sites in the park. Two are empty and one is occupied by Costa Coffee.

An agent representing Quad-rant said the firm had been unable to attract any interest in the spaces from restaurant companies and had turned to pubs.

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Greene King, which owns Hungry Horse chain, was chosen in June.

On October 1 a public exhibition of the plans was held in the retail park, with a “high degree of support” reported.

Report author Lucie Brailsford wrote: “A very clear majority of visitors that attended the exhibition were supportive of the proposal and the positive benefits it would bring.

“A small number of concerns were raised about the need for an establishment of the type proposed and about anti-social behaviour.”

About 100 people had visited the exhibition, 57 leaving written feedback.

More than nine out of 10 people “agreed that it was important for the unit to be brought into use” and 85 per cent “agreed that a family pub or restaurant would improve the choice of places to eat and drink in Cowley”.

Quadrant Estates said a pub in the retail park was the only way to draw restaurants to the site.

It said in a letter to the city council that a Hungry Horse pub would improve footfall and the time people spent at the retail park.

The pub would be open from 7am to 12.30am the next day, but Quadrant Estates said: “In practice, if it opens in the morning it will be for the sale of breakfasts and coffee.

“Generally it will close before midnight but Greene King wants the ability to trade the above mentioned hours.”

The developer said the 469 sq m pub would create between 50 and 60 jobs and its name, possibly involving Cowley’s heritage, would be chosen in a competition.

It would include 13 car parking spaces and room for 10 bicycles, accessible from a new crossover from Rymers Lane.

The unit has been empty since September 2013.

The Nelson pub, in Between Towns Road, Cowley, closed in September because of incidents involving violence and drugs.


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