A TESCO store in Abingdon Road, Oxford will not open until February, the superstore giant has announced.

Tesco hoped the store – at the site of the flattened Fox and Hounds pub – would open by the end of the year.

The foundations have been poured in ready for a Tesco Express store with four flats above and nine parking spaces.

Spokesman Beth Greenhouse said: “We are pleased to be on site and to be making progress.

“Jobs will be advertised on our website four to six weeks before the store opens.We hope to open around February next year and look forward to serving local customers.”

She was unable to explain why the opening date had changed.

In July, Ms Greenhouse told the Oxford Mail: “We don’t have a date for the completion of the demolition, but we hope to have the new store open by the end of the year.”

The pub closed in 2007 and was bought by Tesco in 2008.

Damaged by fire in 2009, residents complained it was an eyesore on the corner of Abingdon Road and Weirs Lane. But some have complained that a chain store is taking over the site.

Chatham Road resident William Rankin, 64, said: “It’s a welcome sight now they’ve demolished it, not just for myself but for a lot of other residents I have spoken to.

“They keep in touch with me and they told me a couple of weeks ago about the February date. They didn’t say anything about a delay but that’s fair enough.

“I think it will be worth waiting for. We’ve been waiting a long time to have another shop.”

Oxfordshire County Council member John Tanner said: “I’m pleased Tesco has diggers working on the site. The sooner the shop and flats are up the better.

“It’s an eyesore and I wish somebody would develop the old petrol station next door as well.

“The pity is the whole corner is not being developed for housing with a shop underneath. “In a sensible world that’s what would happen.”