A theatre in a Hampshire village should not be allowed to stay open because it is harming the local area, a council planning expert has said.

A planning inspector is set to decide the fate of part of Titchfield Festival Theatre's 450-seat theatre, which is part of the St Margaret’s Lane site.

Fareham Borough Council said it was built without permission, but this is disputed by the theatre.

Under questioning from council barrister Emma Dring, FBC's town planning expert, Stephen Jupp, said the development was clearly in conflict with planning policies. The theatre had not gone through the procedure of looking for alternative sites, a ‘sequential test’ before expanding and should have looked at Fareham for a satellite site.

He said the theatre was not just serving a local need but had a wider client base than just Titchfield as evidenced by a Portsmouth-based theatre company which gave a representation at the inquiry on the first day. 

Mr Jupp had calculated that with 102 performances per year, at 70 per cent capacity, the Arden Theatre alone would generate 33,000 visitors.

This intensity and expansion meant that the existing planning application had been breached and could not be considered a small-scale rural development. It materially changed and so new planning permission should have been sought.

Under cross-examination, Mr Jupp said to Titchfield's Megan Thomas KC: “There was no way of mitigating  harm that had already taken place or future harm of parking, noise and [road] safety. Harm occurs and continues to occur.”

Ms Thomas said the theatre is a community and leisure facility and part of the cultural infrastructure and located in the countryside, and as such there is a policy where countryside expansion should be allowed if there is a local need. 

However, there was much back and forth over the distinction of local and regional need.

Planning inspector Nancy Thomas also heard representations from four more Titchfield Festival Theatre supporters on Thursday morning who sat in the packed public gallery at The Holiday Inn, Fareham. 

Sarah Lock, of Locks Heath, who runs the Theatre Tots programme at the venue, said she makes theatre accessible to a current group of 15, 18-month to preschool-age toddlers.

She said: “It gives the children the opportunity to do shows with professional lights and music in an auditorium not offered elsewhere in the area. It brings together its parents and carers who have become good friends. The potential of losing that would be devastating.”