A POPULAR business which sells Polish cuisine could be forced to leave Herefordshire if they fail to get retrospective planning permission.

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.

They sell pierogi which can resemble either Italian ravioli or the traditional Cornish pasty and their food has proved a huge success – the company was one of the three finalists at this year’s BBC Food and Farming Awards 2018 in the street food/takeaway category.

The company has grown so much they now set up stalls at festivals all across the UK – it’s so popular they are completely booked until December. Their landlord has now applied for a retrospective change of use from A1 retail class to B2 which is required for light industry appropriate in a residential area.

But the plans are opposed by Marden Parish Council because it does not fit in with the neighbourhood plan and the proposals could be brought before Herefordshire Council’s planning committee.

Jacek Koziol said: “If we don’t get planning permission we will have to move elsewhere.

“We love it here. There’s no other place like this in the county and if we don’t get permission we may have to move to Shropshire.”

Emilia Koziol Wisniewski said they had the support of more than 40 residents and the vast majority of their immediate neighbours.

She said: “Most of our immediate neighbours love what we do.”

William Adamson who lives close to the business said: “The tenants of this property are an extremely hard working family who have over the past two years proved to be excellent, friendly, neighbours.

“They have caused us no problems and flown the flag for Herefordshire in many parts of the country. “Their latest project – the Friday night takeaway – has proved extremely popular, but we have experienced no problems with the additional traffic this has generated.

“I wish them the best of luck with their projects and urge acceptance of this application.”

Speaking at Monday night’s (July 9) Marden Parish Council meeting, applicant and landlord Dawn Jones asked the council to reconsider its stance given the large amount of support for the proposals among villagers.

She said: “The reason for our attendance tonight and not at the last meeting is because we were led to believe retrospective planning application was a formality as the company had been running successfully for the last four years with no complaint from the parish council or residents.

“The reason for the parish council’s objection is that it does not fit in with the Marden NDP.

“However, this is a retrospective planning application for a business that has been in the village that could continue in the same manner.”

Chairman David Bennett said the council was concerned about what any future tenants would do with the new classification for the building.

He said: “At no time have we been arguing against the current tenants.

“We said it was something we would like to support but we were against the industrialisation of something that was basically a retail site before.” Herefordshire Council planning officers are expected to make a decision on the proposals by July 13.

Due to the high level of public interest, if the plans are recommended for aproval they are expected to go before the council’s planning committee in the near future.