Tesco gobbles up another pub (From Oxford Mail)

Tesco gobbles up another pub

11:50am Tuesday 5th August 2008 in News By Fran Bardsley

Supermarket chain Tesco has bought another empty pub in Oxford as part of plans to open more stores in the city.

Its latest acquistion is the Fox and Hounds, in Abingdon Road, which the company wants to turn into a Tesco Express convenience store.

Tesco already has two supermarkets in Oxford - Tesco Metro, in Cowley Road, and a superstore at Oxford Retail Park, in Ambassador Avenue, Cowley - and bought the disused Friar pub, in Marston Road, Marston, in April, to create another Tesco Express.

Spokesman Juliette Bishop said: "Tesco can confirm that we have plans to redevelop the former Fox and Hounds Pub, in Abingdon Road, into a Tesco Express store.

"This is an excellent opportunity for a Tesco Express along the busy Abingdon Road, leading out of Oxford city centre.

"However, our plans are in the early stages at the moment."

The pub closed late last year.

Ms Bishop said the adjacent former petrol station site, which has been empty for years, was not part of its plans.

She could not give a timescale for when a shop might open and she said no talks with the city council's planning department had been held.

The store, at the junction with Weirs Lane, would be almost opposite the Nisa Local grocery shop and post office.

Mohammad Afzal, who has run the shop in Abingdon Road for more than 20 years, said: "It will badly affect my trade - not only my trade, but everybody else around it. We have got Sainsbury's down the road already.

"I would like to know why we need one down here. I think there's no need.

"The traffic in Abingdon Road is already very congested, so I think traffic-wise it will be a disaster too."

Reaction from people living in the area was mixed. Seventy-seven-year-old Bernice Morgan, who lives in Weirs Lane, said she would welcome the plans.

She said: "I think that would be lovely.

I'm an OAP and I can't go too far. The only shop we have got now is across Abingdon Road and I hate crossing that road.

"At the moment, I have to get a taxi to Cowley to go to Iceland, so this would be perfect."

But Elizabeth Laskar, who lives in Abingdon Road, was concerned about the potential impact on existing shops.

Ms Laskar, who is in her 30s, said: "I'm really into supporting local shops and if they put a Tesco there, it's going to put a lot of pressure on the local shop, which is a really nice community store. I would be the first to sign a petition against it."