Hampshire theatre company hits out at council after prosecution

Titchfield Festival Theatre Limited admitted nine charges of failing to comply with a breach of a condition notice after it hosted more weddings than it was supposed to at The Great Barn in Titchfield. 

Under planning conditions previously imposed, the company is not allowed to host more than 14 wedding events in a year, but an investigation found that it had exceeded this "by some margin". 

But the company has raised questions about the council's motives and claims the authority is "obstructing" aims to earn income and grow. 

READ MORE: Titchfield Festival Theatre prosecuted over Great Barn weddings

A spokesperson for Titchfield Festival Theatre Limited said it was using The Great Barn for weddings to "earn the income needed to sustain and grow the theatre’s impressive record".

They added: "Whatever the rights and wrongs of the case, the council’s motives must be questioned, and one wonders if it is really in the public interest, particularly in the light of the continued obstructions put in the charity’s path and in the light of the amount that the theatre does in the community.

"Titchfield Festival Theatre is Europe’s only fully sustainable theatre, employing a raft of environmentally positive measures, for example negating its use of power to the point where it has sold power back to the grid.

"It may be argued that Fareham Borough Council should be backing the charity to the hilt for this alone.

"The council's regularly negative and seemingly unwarranted intervention in the charity’s development has long raised questions in the community about their motives and the potential ramifications on the theatre's future."

However, the council said the theatre company was prosecuted for "persistent abuse of planning conditions".

The Great Barn, Titchfield. (Image: NQ)

"The condition was imposed to protect the living conditions of the occupiers of nearby residential properties and also in the interests of the character of the Titchfield Abbey Conservation Area," a spokesperson said.

"The owner of the barn, Titchfield Festival Theatre Limited, has previously been refused permission by the council on two separate occasions in 2015 and 2016 to increase the number of weddings allowed at the venue. 

"In both cases those decisions were upheld by Planning Inspectors independent from the Council after the owner lodged appeals. 

"The council has raised the matter of the breach of the wedding event condition with the owners of the barn on a number of previous occasions. 

"Despite this, the breaches have persisted resulting in the council taking formal action and bringing this prosecution."

The planning permission was initially granted by the council in 2012 allowing the barn to be used for various purposes with weddings added to this in 2013. 

But the company says there was a backlog of wedding events and a host of disappointed couples due to the pandemic. Despite having "virtually no income", the theatre "continued to support its local community".

"Surely, a borough council that serves its community should be extending a hand to a plucky, successful and ever-growing team of people who work extensively throughout Fareham Borough and its environs?," the spokesperson added.