by The chief executive of an amateur theater is in a planning row with his Hampshire council after he was allowed to build a 450-seat venue secretly without permission.
Kevin Fraser, the artistic director at Titchfield Festival Theater (TFT), has approved the creation of a new £1.7 million performing arts hub despite two previous applications being rejected by Fareham council.
Since 2010 the theater has performed from a renovated barn with two auditoriums that can seat 100 and 200 people respectively.
But with hundreds of children using the center every week and a busy program of up to 40 shows a year, bosses decided to expand the center to include a third area with a capacity of more than 450 people.
Billed as the largest community theater in Europe, land previously granted planning permission as a storage area was selected to build a new venue, the Arden.
The 67-year-old former Foreign Office diplomat said legal advice was taken before TFT pushed ahead with its long-planned expansion.
It was staged during the summer following its completion, and its upcoming festival program includes a Robin Hood nativity play and pantomime, featuring Mr Fraser.
But there is uncertainty over the long-term future of the new venue after Fareham borough council officers served Mr Fraser with an enforcement notice demanding the closure of the new theater by February 29 unless an appeal is lodged.
One councilor said the decision to build a new 450-seat venue without planning permission was a “beggar’s creed”, adding that the space was only intended to be used for storage.
But Mr Fraser, 67, who was based in Chile while working as a diplomat in the 1970s, argued that the long-term use of the site for a community theater meant that planning permission was not required.
Describing Fareham’s council as full of “Scrooges” and “Grinches”, he claimed the TFT had fallen victim to a “vindictive vendetta” by Conservative members who fear competition between it and theatre. which was run by the council which would open next year.
“Titchfield Festival Theater is a hugely successful community theater company supported by thousands across the borough and wider area,” Mr Fraser told the Telegraph.
“It is the largest community theater in Europe and the only fully sustainable green theater in Europe.
“Fareham borough council clearly don’t want the competition, they want to deny it. There are 20 theaters in Shaftesbury Avenue in London – why can’t we have two in Fareham?”
“We’re not going anywhere and we’ll just keep going. But we are pained and longed for – and at Christmas, that’s why I call them the Grinches and Scrooges.”
Mr. Fraser said that this series was likely to appear in the forthcoming Robin Hood pantomime and that he was prepared to undertake any efforts to close the new venue.
“There might be a few jokes about ‘can you put that statue in there? Do you have planning permission?’
“That’s something, to keep the story alive. We are here, we are not leaving.
“Even if they win and shut down the Arden, we still have the other two theaters ahead. We’re not going anywhere and we’ll just keep going,” he said.
The new center was built in secret after unsuccessful attempts to get permission from councillors.
A planning application for a 567-seat theater was refused in 2019, and another refused application followed later that year.
Construction work on the new center began in August last year.
In a statement Fareham borough council said it had been alerted to the new development earlier in the year and continued to stage and advertise productions despite the risk of enforcement action.
“The officers visited the site and met with representatives from the theater company who explained that work was underway to create a new 450 seat theatre,” he said.
“Officers were shown around the development which includes a newly dug underground orchestra pit below the stage and a complex of backstage dressing rooms and rehearsal areas.
“The new theater was created in a space that had previously received planning permission to be used as a warehouse.
“Council officers warned the company that, without obtaining planning permission, the new center was at risk of enforcement action.
“Despite this warning, various public performances have been staged and shows are advertised on the theater companies’ website throughout December and well into 2024.”
Titchfield Festival Theater was originally established at Titchfield Abbey in 2001 and one of its original purposes was to promote the theory that William Shakespeare lived and worked in south Hampshire.
Shakespeare is believed to have had links to the village through an alleged relationship with Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, who sponsored the writer for a time.
“Our whole raison d’etre is that Titchfield was believed to be the area where Shakespeare spent his lost years,” Mr Fraser said.
