Court of Appeal to hear dispute over enforcement notice issued after 460-seat theatre built without permission

The case arose after Titchfield Festival Theatre received planning permission in 2022 to extend its warehouse building onto a new site (Area C).

It was also permitted to raise the warehouse's roof and extend its walls in order to join the building to the site's adjacent buildings (Areas A and B).

A brand new 463-seat theatre was subsequently created, which straddled Areas B and Areas C, known as the Arden Theatre.

The council later issued an enforcement notice covering Areas B and C, arguing that the work represented a material change of use of the land without planning permission.

A planning inspector dismissed Titchfield Festival Theatre’s appeal and upheld the enforcement notice.

In Titchfield Festival Theatre Ltd v Secretary of State for Housing, Communities, and Local Government & Anor [2025] EWHC 883 (Admin) (16 April 2025), Deputy Judge Neil Cameron KC dismissed both grounds of appeal advanced by Titchfield Festival Theatre.

The theatre company’s appeal will be heard by Lord Justice Lewison, Lord Justice Holgate and Lord Justice Dove.

See also: The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together (Shakespeare, Macbeth) – Roderick Morton analyses the High Court ruling.