Curtain falls on £1.7m theatre without planning permission

The artistic director of a theatre company has said Shakespeare would be “turning in his grave” after he was told to close down a £1.7 million theatre for not having planning permission.
Kevin Fraser said he was “broken-hearted” at a council’s decision ordering Titchfield Festival Theatre, in Fareham, Hampshire, to bring the curtain down on its new 450-seat Arden theatre.The theatre, which features an underground orchestra pit for 16 musicians, dwarfs the company’s existing Acorn and Oak theatres, which hold 90 and 180 audience members respectively and do have planning permission.
Fraser leads the theatre company in the town southeast of Southampton, which has links to William Shakespeare through Henry Wriothesley, the third Earl of Southampton, who lived on the family estate at Titchfield Abbey and was a patron of the famous playwright when he arrived on the scene in London.
Speaking after Fareham borough council rejected an appeal to keep the theatre, Fraser said: “I am clearly broken-hearted at the decision from the planning inspectorate. The country will lose one of its greatest community arts assets and Shakespeare must be turning in his grave.
“In light of this decision, I will speak to our trustees and fully evaluate the outcome before commenting further. In the meantime however, we’d love to see you at what will possibly be the last show in the Arden theatre — Made in Dagenham. We promise you plenty of fun, laughter and music.”
Titchfield Festival Theatre, which claims to be the largest community theatre in Europe, has operated out of a converted barn for the past 13 years, which holds the Acorn and Oak theatres. Wanting to play to bigger crowds, and after two failed attempts in 2019 to get permission to convert a storage space on the site into a larger theatre space, Fraser sanctioned the covert building of the Arden theatre in August 2022.
It has been hosting performances since last summer but the council took action in November to close it down.
Fraser denounced the council planning committee as “Scrooges” and put in an appeal to the planning inspectorate, while continuing to run a full season of performances this year. That appeal has been rejected and Fraser has been told the theatre must stop using the venue by October 12.
In a statement the council said it had been alerted to the new development last year, and pointed out that the space had only been granted planning permission for use as storage.
Nick Walker, the chairman of the planning committee, said: “It beggars belief that anyone would build a new 450-seat theatre without first securing planning permission.”
The council said that this was because the site was “unsustainable” and in a “poorly accessible location outside the urban area”, as well as offering “inadequate levels of parking” which would lead to a “significant increase in noise affecting neighbours”.
Fraser said that the theatre company had asked Hampshire county council if it could purchase, rent or lease unused nearby land “on repeated occasions” but that “nothing has happened”. Fraser, who starred in last year’s Christmas pantomime, said: “We are here, we are not going away. We still have our two other theatres at the front.”
Ian Bastable, vice-chairman of the planning committee at Fareham borough council, said he was happy that the theatre had lost its appeal.
“It seems extraordinary that, despite concerns raised by the council in connection with creating a large theatre here, the works still went ahead,” he said. “I would like to reassure all of our residents that where development is carried out without planning permission, and is unacceptable in planning terms, this council will take action against it.”