THERE are few companies which split opinion as much as Tesco.

The firm is perhaps the UK’s biggest supermarket success story, but has always found it difficult to crowbar its way into the city centre.

Elsewhere there’s been no such problem, and now it seems its march into Oxford is complete.

We reported in April that Tesco was eyeing up a store in St Aldate’s.

Today, the Oxford Mail revealed the firm plans to take over the former Border’s bookstore in Magdalen Street.

The move has, unsurprisingly, provoked a strong reaction.

Independent traders are worried their businesses will suffer, while the supermarket giant thinks its presence will encourage more people into the area.

Maybe Sainsbury’s has the most pressing concern, being a mere two doors away.

It is also difficult to complain about a chain store moving in when it will be replacing a multi-national firm.

And, let’s face it, Oxford has far bigger battles to fight.

Small shopkeepers are fighting huge rent increases. And the coffee shops – good grief the coffee shops – keep coming.

Tesco may not be everybody’s cup of tea, but they’re not ‘the problem’ when it comes to the city centre.