Tesco is forced to move its fence at Marston

6:00pm Friday 8th February 2013 in News Photograph of the Author By Damian Fantato, covering Summertown, Jericho and North Oxford. Call me on 01865 425429

Eric Perkins, front, and others celebrate their victory Eric Perkins, front, and others celebrate their victory

RESIDENTS have scored a victory over supermarket giant Tesco.

The company had blocked off a public path and a piece of green space when it put up a fence around the former Friar pub in Marston Road, Marston, Oxford, last week.

But now the fence has been taken down after local residents fought the latest round in their ongoing dispute against Tesco’s development plans.

Crotch Crescent resident Eric Perkins said: “We are only residents representing ourselves, but our councillors have been very helpful.

“The greatest feeling was seeing people walking along that footpath like they have done for years. If nothing had been done it would have been easy for that area to be fenced off for the next three years.”

Since 2008, Tesco has been planning to turn the old Friar pub on the corner of Marston Road and Old Marston Road into a supermarket, despite local opposition.

The company bought the site from restaurateur Clinton Pugh after he failed to develop the site into a cafe and flats.

Planning permission for the Tesco Express store was refused by Oxford City Council, but in 2011 it was approved on appeal.

This sparked concerns about the future of the green space in front of the pub, with fears that Tesco would cut down the trees there. The company, however, pledged to save the trees.

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Since then the former pub has been sitting empty, with work yet to start.

A number of Marston residents attempted to gain ownership of the land outside the pub via a common law process called ‘adverse possession’, where members of the public can take physical control over land with the aim of owning it.

Roger Baycock, who runs saxophone shop Allegro Oxford opposite the site, was one of those.

He said: “It is thanks to the vigilance and action of local residents and the intervention of Councillor Roy Darke and the local press that the mistake by Tesco has been thwarted.”

Tesco spokesman Simon Petar said: “Having been made aware that we had gone slightly over our boundaries we moved the fence back to ensure there was no problem.”

Comments(16)

Myron Blatz says...
6:21pm Fri 8 Feb 13

Sad reality is that had it not been Tesco, then probably the Coop (that other convenience store monopoly player) would have moved in. When Oxford is so very short of affordable one-bed social housing, it seems disgusting that companies like Tesco and private sector developers can be allowed to buy-up land and property, and then be allowed to do nothing for years - like the former Cowley Community Centre, where City Council has done nothing!

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oxchris says...
7:09pm Fri 8 Feb 13

I'm actually starting to despair of these people now. Why don't they use their powers for good instead of hogging the Oxford Mail with their Tesco obsession?

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AHP says...
7:23pm Fri 8 Feb 13

I'm a bit disheartened to see yet another Tesco/Sainsbury/Co-o
p get the approval to develop. I realize I may not know the whole picture - I'm no expert by any means and maybe there are underlying issues that I don't know about which drives this. But there have been too many 'mushroom' supermarkets popping up all over in the last few years all over Oxford. Why? What good does the Sainsburys on St Clements do or the one on Cowley Road - almost opposite Tesco? I think only to harm other business. I don't think anyone in East Oxford were dying for two Sainsburys to set up shop within half a mile of each other. The same goes for the Sainsbury that is now replacing B&Q in Cowley. Our closest B&Qs are now in Witney or Abingdon. This happens when we already have two HUGE Tesco & Sainsbury within a mile of it. I really don't get it. I think we needed the B&Q more than yet another supermarket.... Can someone enlighten me, please?

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Suitable says...
2:02am Sat 9 Feb 13

Look at what is happening with the old Fox and Hounds pub - closed down and derelict for too many years. We have lost a social community area to Tesco, who wish to build at some point, on a flood plane! This happens to be the end of my back garden, and they also have permission to build higher, which effectively blocks out the sunset, and no doubt will increase traffic in an area that is well over the danger level (40), as far as pollution goes. It seems that the Councils(?) responsible for the roads, have stopped monitoring the pollution levels ..... I am told this figure of 40 breaks the EU regulations? Many people living in this area have chronic bronchitis and asthma problems which are surely due to the pollution from so much traffic in Abingdon Road and Weirs Lane, Oxford. I feel very strongly about this, and also think this area is very neglected.

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OxfordStu says...
11:43am Sat 9 Feb 13

Good to see the locals trashing the much loved green area by walking all over it to get their photo in the paper.

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Vernon Spools says...
2:31pm Sat 9 Feb 13

We can hardly blame tescos for wishing to put money into the community, that will ultimately provide well needed jobs, albeit only a handful. We can not either blame the pubs for loss of community, they closed because people were not spending money in them. Perhaps that is the fault of the supermarkets selling cheap alcohol so people can just sit at home rather than spending time with friends and chatting in pubs, but I think there is a bigger picture, xboxes, internet, TVs, digital channels. It is just progress and perhaps a sad reflection on society.

For every tescos that opens, it is packed, look at Cowley Road and St Giles. They then build a sainsburys opposite and that is the same. It is market forces.

Perhaps the residents of crotch crescent should have their own dedicate page in the paper.

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Isawyoucoming says...
4:29pm Sat 9 Feb 13

oxchris wrote:
I'm actually starting to despair of these people now. Why don't they use their powers for good instead of hogging the Oxford Mail with their Tesco obsession?
where is councillor haines, he must be on holiday

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Isawyoucoming says...
4:32pm Sat 9 Feb 13

Isawyoucoming wrote:
oxchris wrote:
I'm actually starting to despair of these people now. Why don't they use their powers for good instead of hogging the Oxford Mail with their Tesco obsession?
where is councillor haines, he must be on holiday
correction he's hiding at the back

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Myron Blatz says...
1:51pm Sun 10 Feb 13

lSuccessful supermarket (and DIY chains) operate to make profits - those which don't, fail. Whatever investment they might make within in communities is with the primary goal of taking money from those very same communities. As for 'job creation' this has to be balanced against the job losses caused when these large retailers move into communities and virtually destroy local competition for small shops, garages, hardware stores and family firms which have often been an integral part of the 'community' for decades or longer. Perhaps if many of our local communities still had small family butchers we could trust, we wouldn't have been buying supermarket meat products we now know to have contained up to 100% horsemeat, and more worryingly, quite possibly contaminated with chemicals dangerous to human consumption. Still, I suppose the upside is that supermarkets and foodstuff retailers were able to offer 'low cost' foodlines to the poor and elderly within our communities - even if they'd previously failed to apparently test such products for horsemeat or pig-product content on a regular basis. Ethically, I wonder how supermarkets - including the Coop - can explain this shortcoming to members of our communities for which pork consumption is not allowed - let alone horsemeat contamination for the rest of us?

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tyson twigs says...
1:59pm Sun 10 Feb 13

Is the guy on the left protesting by showing us his bits?

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Grunden Skip says...
7:11pm Sun 10 Feb 13

Myron Blatz wrote:
lSuccessful supermarket (and DIY chains) operate to make profits - those which don't, fail. Whatever investment they might make within in communities is with the primary goal of taking money from those very same communities. As for 'job creation' this has to be balanced against the job losses caused when these large retailers move into communities and virtually destroy local competition for small shops, garages, hardware stores and family firms which have often been an integral part of the 'community' for decades or longer. Perhaps if many of our local communities still had small family butchers we could trust, we wouldn't have been buying supermarket meat products we now know to have contained up to 100% horsemeat, and more worryingly, quite possibly contaminated with chemicals dangerous to human consumption. Still, I suppose the upside is that supermarkets and foodstuff retailers were able to offer 'low cost' foodlines to the poor and elderly within our communities - even if they'd previously failed to apparently test such products for horsemeat or pig-product content on a regular basis. Ethically, I wonder how supermarkets - including the Coop - can explain this shortcoming to members of our communities for which pork consumption is not allowed - let alone horsemeat contamination for the rest of us?
A couple of points Myron, The Friar Tesco will have no impact on a few of the businesses you mention as they will not sell those products. And the scare tactic regarding meat is well below your usual standard, I have yet to go to a good family butcher that sells the processed meat products that have been highlighted, and Supermarket fresh meat is of the same and higher (Tesco Finest* Sainsbury's taste the difference etc) standards than you local family butcher. At Christmas I bought a 3 rib roast from the butcher at Tesco at £8.99 a kilo, it was far better than the one I bought from Alder's just down Cowley Road a month earlier for nearly double the price. P.S. Findus is not a supermarket by the way, but I am sure that you will find a way to blame Tesco for that one as well, just wait till they find Dolphin Meat in their fish fingers. P.P.S. I don't think the CO-OP in Oxford sells Halal products, so your last point flies out the window as well.

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Geoff Roberts says...
12:06am Mon 11 Feb 13

oxchris wrote:
I'm actually starting to despair of these people now. Why don't they use their powers for good instead of hogging the Oxford Mail with their Tesco obsession?
Why don't you use your powers for good instead of sniping in the newspaper comments section at local people who are concerned about their community?

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Geoff Roberts says...
12:08am Mon 11 Feb 13

OxfordStu wrote:
Good to see the locals trashing the much loved green area by walking all over it to get their photo in the paper.
It was probably the Oxford Mail that set up the shot anyway, they normally do. Nothing has been trashed. Please stop being silly.

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Geoff Roberts says...
12:11am Mon 11 Feb 13

"We can hardly blame tescos for wishing to put money into the community" Vernons Pools

What? You don't seriously believe that do you? Most of these are loss leader stores, their point is to put independent small businesses out of business, grab market share then close down and make everyone travel to larger stores thus shifting the cost of fuel to the consumer. You have no idea or you are being deliberately obtuse.

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Grunden Skip says...
3:52pm Mon 11 Feb 13

Geoff Roberts wrote:
"We can hardly blame tescos for wishing to put money into the community" Vernons Pools

What? You don't seriously believe that do you? Most of these are loss leader stores, their point is to put independent small businesses out of business, grab market share then close down and make everyone travel to larger stores thus shifting the cost of fuel to the consumer. You have no idea or you are being deliberately obtuse.
Geoff which is brilliant for those of us not as perfect as you that can afford £30 a Kilo for a bit of Beef, or £12 for a chicken. Us NORMAL people need value on our doorstep, as we cannot afford cars or the exhorbitant bus fares to travel to shop. You obviously can, so drive to your preferred retailer, an let the rest of us have value shopping locally, and not be held to ransom by The CO-OP and "costcutter" what a name, wheen it does not cut costs and sells nothing but yesterdays rejects. But Geoff you are always right, so maybe my pensioner neighbour will have to carry on paying over the odds, to please you.

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Alfie Nokes says...
10:32pm Mon 11 Feb 13

Grunden, a false economy is a false economy, no matter how much you think you need it.

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