RESIDENTS opposed to Abingdon’s third Tesco store have conducted a traffic survey which they claim shows gridlock will be created on one of the town’s major routes.

Tesco has bought the former Ox pub in Oxford Road and is now developing the site to open a Tesco Express store early next year.

But residents say they have major concerns about traffic after conducting their own survey.

Dr James Bacon, of Northcourt Walk, who lives opposite the development site, spent 17 hours tracking vehicle movements over a four-day period earlier this month at the Tesco Express off Wootton Road.

The 70-year-old said he recorded an average of 600 cars coming to the Tesco Express in Thornhill Walk each day.

Speaking on behalf of the Tesco Oxford Road Action Group, Dr Bacon, a former professor of information systems at Bath University, said the Tesco Ox development could cause “mayhem and chaos”.

He added: “There is no doubt that the new Tesco Express store will cause gridlock in Oxford Road.

“That has not been the case with the store on the site of the former Fitzharris Arms pub off Wootton Road because it is set back from the main road.”

He claimed 270 buses per day were trying to pull into and leave from bus stops next to the new site.

He added: “It would appear likely that the adjacent, already congested intersection with St John’s Road and Boxhill Road will become a traffic blackspot.

“The proposed Tesco site would represent a serious problem for traffic with the difficulties of turning against traffic to get into the site, the virtual impossibility of using a narrow St John’s Road to exit, and the extreme difficulty of articulated delivery trucks trying to get in and out.”

Dr Bacon said residents were also concerned that school pupils could be more at risk crossing Oxford Road.

The Fitzharris Arms in Thornhill Walk closed last December and re-opened as a Tesco Express in June.

The Ox closed in March.

The supermarket giant has applied to change the front of the building and put up signs.

Dr Bacon is submitting his findings to Vale of White Horse District Council for consideration in conjunction with Tesco’s planning application, at a date to be fixed.

Earlier this month Vale council leader Matthew Barber said he would seek a meeting with Tesco bosses to find out its long-term plans for Abingdon.

Tesco, which also has a main store off Marcham Road, said earlier that the Tesco Express on the site of the former Ox pub would create 20 new full and part-time jobs.

Tesco spokesman Simon Petar said: “Customers tend to come from within 500 metres of the store and many walk or cycle. Our Express stores help people to shop locally.

“All of our deliveries will take place on site, from the car park.”