SUPERMARKET giant Tesco has won its four-year battle to open a store on a former pub site in Abingdon Road.

Last night Tesco was given permission to demolish the derelict Fox and Hounds pub and replace it with a three storey building.

A new store will be housed on the ground floor with four flats above it.

The redevelopment had been the focus of campaigns by residents both in favour and opposed to the supermarket chain opening a store.

Mohammad Afzal, who runs the Nisa store in Abingdon Road, told Oxford City Council’s west area planning committee the new shop was not needed and would threaten his business, which is also home to a Post Office.

He added: “The Post Office will close and this is a family business.”

But Tesco’s regional corporate affairs manger Simon Petar said the plan had significant local support and was investment in the area.

On fears the shop would create traffic problems, he said: “Many of our Tesco Express customers come from within 500m of our stores.”

Councillor John Tanner said the planning committee had no alternative but to approve the scheme.

He told them: “We have run out of reasons to refuse this on planning grounds and I have no confidence that we would win an appeal.”

The pub, which sits on the corner of Wiers Lane, has been empty since 2007.

Tesco bought it in 2008 but it was gutted by a fire in 2009.