East Oxford shoppers are fed up that not only is the Tesco store on Cowley Road still shut but now the click and collect service has been withdrawn.

Chris Parsons told us: “Many local residents are severely impacted by the lengthy store closure. I’ve been using the Click and Collect service recently to organise shopping for an extremely vulnerable individual who can’t get all he needs from other shops.

“I know numerous other local residents who have been dismayed by the closure, and now by the failure to meet the reopening date Tesco originally announced.

“Now it seems that Tesco has quietly dropped the ‘click and collect’ option from the Union Street car park. It’s no longer available on their website and I was told last week by a Tesco employee that it was ending today, because that’s when Tesco’s agreement with the council to use the car park ends.

“This presumably was timed for the original store reopening date - which now looks like being postponed for weeks.”

The store closed in March for 30 weeks as part of highly-controversial plans to build 137 student flats above it.

At one point the supermarket was aiming to reopen in late October but that has slipped.

Later the retail giant looked forward “to welcoming customers back to the new store at the end of November.”

In mid-October they said: “We will share the date in due course. We’ll be sure to give our customers plenty of notice about when the store is due to re-open.”

They apologised and added: "The upgraded store will help us better serve the community and we look forward to welcoming customers back once construction is complete."

Plans to redevelop the supermarket were approved by Oxford City Council in 2019 despite objections from locals.

In February, residents shared their concerns about being forced to travel further afield to get their shopping and the busy East Oxford street being left with one less essential shop.

On Click and Collect, Tesco said increasingly customers preferred to have their shopping delivered to their home.

A Tesco spokesperson said: “We have very good availability of home delivery slots and, as a result, customer demand for our temporary Click + Collect point on Cowley Road has fallen away over recent months.

“While we have withdrawn this temporary collection service, we continue to provide priority online slots for vulnerable customers, so that they can have food delivered straight to their door.”