Penny's Pies to expand and open new factory near St Keverne

Penny’s Pies is currently based in Manaccan but owner Penny Williams applied to Cornwall Council for planning permission for a new facility just outside St Keverne, on land belonging to Trelanvean Farm. 

Her application went before the council’s west sub-area planning committee where it was unanimously approved.

Speaking after the meeting Penny said it was “absolutely, completely, utterly fantastic”. She added: “For me and the guys who work with me it is magic. We are excited about the future and I will be able to employ more people now and expand.”

The planning committee had heard that the business had outgrown its current home in Manaccan and that Penny wanted to have better facilities which would allow her to distribute her handmade pies beyond Cornwall and Devon.

Penny explained that she started the business as she was “a product of the Post Office scandal”.

Some of the pies made by Penny\'s Pies which has been given planning permission for a new facility (Image: Penny\'s Pies/free to use)

She said that she was one of a number of Post Office workers who were wrongly accused of theft, in Penny’s case more than £20,000.

“I had the pub in Manaccan for a number of years and then we had the village shop and Post Office. These ran well and then I was accused of stealing £20,000 from the Post Office which I had definitely not done. We are part of the group who took the Post Office to court etc.”

The Post Office wrongly prosecuted more than 700 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses between 2000 and 2014 based on information from a newly installed computer system.

Some were sent to prison and many suffered financial hardship and were even “shunned” in their local communities.

However it was later found that it was the software which was at fault and the High Court has quashed a number of the convictions.

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Penny said that after the Post Office scandal she had to look at starting a new business and decided to start her pie firm in 2015.

Starting on her own she now employs three people and has her produce stocked in 20 shops.

But now she hopes to expand further: “We have been desperately waiting for this planning. It will give us better facilities and enable us to trade outside Cornwall and move forward to expand and employ more people.”

Penny’s passion for pies came when she ran the pub and used to make pies to serve to hungry customers.

Some of the pies made by Penny\'s Pies which has been given planning permission for a new facility (Image: Penny\'s Pies/free to use)

She explained that she focused on pies as there are enough people making pasties in Cornwall already.

At the planning committee meeting the application was supported by local Cornwall councillor Anthony Soady who said: “It is an exciting opportunity to put Cornish pies on the map as much as Cornish pasties.”

St Keverne Parish Council had raised concerns about traffic from the development of the new facility but Penny said that there would not be excessive traffic movements and there would be no lorries just vans used to transport the pies.

The committee voted unanimously in favour of approving the application in line with the planning officers’ recommendation.