A new takeaway is being planned at a shop unit previously occupied by a deli in Headington.

The Oxford Fine Food Store opened at the beginning of last year but it closed soon afterwards due to high running costs including utility bills.

Now plans for the new takeaway at 1-3 Windmill Road have been submitted to the city council by Agimude Ltd, backing by a covering letter from Beamish Planning Consultancy.

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There has been speculation among residents on social media that the new takeaway will be a KFC diner but this has not been confirmed.

A member of staff at the planning consultancy refused to say if KFC was involved or not, and KFC has not yet replied to our questions.

City council spokesman Tony Ecclestone said: "All we have is the planning application and that doesn’t specify an end user."

There are KFC branches in Cowley Road, Cornmarket and at Templars retail park in Cowley.

In 2019, before the pandemic, KFC said it wanted to open at least nine new outlets in Oxfordshire  - most of them drive-thrus.

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Among the target areas were Summertown, Didcot, Abingdon and at Sainsbury's in Littlemore. 

Oxford Mail:

Most of the branches KFC wanted to open are drive-thrus, but a sit-down restaurant in Summertown was also planned. 

A spokesman for the company said at the time: "We have bold ambitions to have over 1,000 stores in the UK and Ireland by 2020.

"We are looking to build over 50 new stores a year."

KFC was founded by Colonel Harland Sanders, who died in 1980.

He was an entrepreneur who began selling fried chicken from his roadside restaurant in Corbin, Kentucky, during the Great Depression.

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The fast food restaurant chain is one of the most popular food chains with outlets across the UK.

There are a total of eight of the fried chicken restaurants across the county and most have received five-star food ratings from the Food Standards Agency.

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This story was written by Andy Ffrench, he joined the team more than 20 years ago and now covers community news across Oxfordshire.

Get in touch with him by emailing: Andy.ffrench@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter @OxMailAndyF