TESCO has removed hoarding that was blocking a footpath in Oxford for the second time after complaints from residents.

It pushed back the hoarding around the former Friar pub – set to become a store – in Marston this week.

The hoarding had blocked the footpath, which links Old Marston Road and Marston Road, last year, but it was moved in February after complaints. But, having moved it away, the firm later moved the hoarding back.

Mick Haines, an independent city councillor for Marston, said: “I was very annoyed when the hoarding went up. It was a real big inconvenience for people because they had been using it for so many years and then they blocked it.”

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Mr Haines was among those who complained to the supermarket giant, which moved the hoarding on Wednesday.

He said: “It’s absolutely brilliant. I’m so pleased we can use it again. It’s definitely a victory.

“If you keep fighting long enough for something, you can get it achieved.”

Tesco won council planning permission to turn the site – on the corner of Marston Road and Old Marston Road – into a Tesco Express store in 2011. The site was bought from restaurateur Clinton Pugh after he failed to develop a cafe and flats on the site.

Tesco last year moved to quash concerns trees planted there in 1950 in memory of Second World War dead would be removed.

Mr Haines said: “This piece of footpath is a piece of Marston history.

“I think it’s disappointing that they have left it this long to start building it because the residents don’t know what exactly is happening.

“I think the residents should have been informed much more than they have been over this situation. The main concern is are they going to open or are they not?”

Mr Haines added: “We have got shops already, exactly where Tesco is.

“There’s no necessity having this Tesco there in the first place. We should be supporting our local shops.”

Tesco, which this week admitted it had overstated its guidance for half-year profits by £250m, failed to respond to requests for a comment.

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