Plans for popular county food business deferred

Owners of a popular county firm, which specialises in Polish cuisine, will have to wait several weeks for a decision on their proposals after planners postponed deciding them.

The Old Granary Pierogi in Marden is run by Emilia Koziol Wisniewski, Piotr Wisniewski and Jacek Koziol who settled in the county and embraced British cuisine before infusing it with their Polish culinary knowledge.

The company sells pierogi which can resemble either Italian ravioli or the traditional Cornish pasty and their food has proved a huge success and they now set up stalls at festivals across the UK.

Their landlord Dawn Jones applied for a retrospective change of use for the Walkers Green unit from A1 retail class to B2 which is required for light industry appropriate in a residential area.

Speaking at today’s planning committee meeting she said the site had been previously used in a similar fashion as a butcher’s shop for more than 20 years.

“Because of this, I had no reason to think I would need to change the classification,” she said.

“The size, scale and appearance, landscaping and car parking has not changed since the business was formed there four years.”

She added that, other than one resident, there have not been any complaints or issues raised about the business.

“This business is not and will not be the size and scale of Sun Valley but it does contain a very small industrial kitchen.

“Surely there must be a way of compromising this situation to keep this wonderful award winning enterprise in the village.”

Janet Lloyd, an objector who lives next to the site, said the Old Granary Pierogi’s door was only ten metres from her bedroom and she had complained about noise disturbance.

She said: “The door is used for the unloading and loading of all the equipment required for setting up the goods they produce at their onsite factory.

“There are three large vehicles involved. This causes a great disturbance at unreasonable hours as you will note by our letter of objection.”

Marden parish councillor Geoff Lloyd said they had objected to the proposals but were not against the site’s current use.

He explained the parish council wished it to remain as retail or for the council to consider a B1 business status.

He said: “It’s good at the moment, it’s acceptable to the parish council but to go to B2 we have severe concerns it will affect the parishioners.”

Councillors said they struggled with the difference between B1 and B2 planning classifications for the site.

And coun Alan Seldon proposed deferring the decision which the committee backed unanimously.

He said: “I would be inclined to ask for deferral of this application for more information so that we can make a balanced judgement of the impact of the business and the needs of the community.”