TRADERS have pledged to fight supermarket chain Tesco “to the end” to stop it replacing a former pub with a food store.

The company is appealing against Oxford City Council’s decision to refuse permission for a Tesco Express store on the site of the fire-damaged Fox & Hounds pub, in Abingdon Road.

The company wants to build a three-storey building at the junction with Weirs Lane, housing a supermarket and four flats.

The Planning Inspectorate will hold a local inquiry into Tesco’s appeal at Oxford Town Hall in St Aldate’s, on Wednesday, June 8, at 10am.

Traders in the road say they could be driven out of business if Tesco wins In August last year, a Tesco Express opened on the site of the former Solus Lighting shop in St Aldate’s, less than two miles away, as well as another shop in Magdalen Street.

Mohammad Afzal, the sub-postmaster at Nisa Local store opposite the pub, said: “They don’t need another store when there’s one down the road. It will be three or four times bigger than our shop and they will squeeze everyone out.

“I will go down when the inspector comes and we will pursue the same line again.”

Dharamaraj Prasad, who has run Londis on the corner of Newton Road since 1985, said without the shops in Abingdon Road, community spirit would nosedive.

He said: “We will keep fighting to the end. It will destroy the community totally.”

He added: “They’re never going to shop with us if Tesco comes, because outside my shop is double yellow lines and people can’t park.”

Jane Lawford, who has an allotment in Abingdon Road, said: “It would be quite good for me. It’s quite close.

“It would be closer than the main Tesco for bits and bobs. It’s better than the pub standing there just accumulating flyposting.”

Members of the public will be allowed to address the inquiry.

No-one was available for comment at Tesco’s head office.

A public inquiry into the proposed replacement of the closed Friar pub in Marston with a Tesco Express will be held at Oxford Town Hall on March 29 and 30.

The city council has turned down the plan. Anyone wanting to address the inquiry must register with the Planning Inspectorate before 10am on March 29.