COWLEY Road residents have rightly been agitated about the speedy decline of the street’s independent traders.

The big boys have waded in, with Subway, Costa, Nando’s and Sainsbury’s either having already set up home, or planning to move in.

And it looks as if these businesses will thrive.

It is easy to dismiss with a “it’s market forces” wave of the hand, but they succeed because they can afford to succeed.

They can pay the bumper rents landlords want and people will use these shops because there are starting to be no other options.

So news that Witney’s Rapture Records is to open a store in the now defunct Videosyncratic is worth celebrating.

Not just for record-browsing addicts, but also those who like to see something different in their street.

We report on the new venture on the same day music shop chain HMV revealed bleak trading figures.

You would hardly suggest it’s a sea change in retailing, but we welcome Cowley Road’s new resident.