Deadline for Captain Tom’s family to save controversial spa from demolition passes

The deadline for Captain Tom’s family’s last chance to save their controversial luxury spa from demolition has passed.

Hannah Ingram-Moore, 53, and her husband Colin applied in 2021 for permission to build a Captain Tom Foundation building on disused tennis courts at their home in Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire.

The L-shaped building was given the green light, but the planning authority refused a subsequent retrospective application in 2022 for a larger C-shaped building containing a spa pool.

Central Bedfordshire Council then served an enforcement notice requiring the demolition of the “now-unauthorised building” – but the family appealed and a hearing was held in October.

The Planning Inspectorate last month published its decision, dismissing the appeal, ruling that the family had three months to remove the facility. Inspector Diane Fleming said the size of the partially built spa had “resulted in harm” to the family home, a Grade II-listed building.

A council spokesman said at the time that the appeal decision could be challenged by the Ingram-Moores in the High Court for a period of six weeks, a deadline that has now passed.

The Independent has asked the Planning Inspectorate whether it received an appeal application.

The case has attracted national attention due to controversy over the spending of money raised by The Captain Tom Foundation, which received more than £1m in donations in its first year after opening in 2020.

It was established after Captain Tom, who served in the Second World War, raised almost £40m for NHS charities by walking 100 laps of the family home garden before his 100th birthday during the Covid national lockdown.

Last year, The Independent revealed that £54,039 was paid from the foundation to two companies run by Ms Ingram-Moore and her husband.

And this year, Ms Ingram-Moore admitted keeping £800,000 from three books the late army veteran had written, despite the prologue of one of them suggesting the money would go to charity.

The foundation is set to be closed down amid an ongoing inquiry into its finances by the Charity Commission, according to a representative of the family.

Work started on the foundation building at the family home in December 2021 – but the following month the local council discovered that it included an additional wing that was not agreed as part of the approval for the development.

The council refused the retrospective application from the family for the unauthorised part of the building, which included the spa, and ordered it to be removed.

At the planning appeal hearing in October, attended by Ms Ingram-Moore, chartered surveyor James Paynter, for the family, said the scheme had “evolved” to include the spa pool, which could be used to offer rehabilitation sessions for elderly people, while the rest of the building would be used for coffee mornings and charity meetings.

“They felt this extra limb to create a C-shape was needed to create this facility,” he said.

But Richard Procter, planning enforcement team leader for Central Bedfordshire Council, said no information had been provided to the council about the use of the spa for the initial approved planning application.

Several neighbours attended the hearing, with one arguing that the building is “49 per cent bigger than what was consented” and was close to his property, adding: “It’s very brutal.”

In her written decision on the appeal, Ms Fleming said: “I accept that the appellant’s intentions are laudable; however, it has not been demonstrated in any detail how all of this would work in practice.

“In the absence of any substantiated information, I find the suggested public benefit would therefore not outweigh the great weight to be given to the harm to the heritage asset.”

She added: “The scale and massing of the building has resulted in harm to The Old Rectory [family home] which I find suggested conditions would not overcome.”

In an emotional interview with Piers Morgan on TalkTV aired in October, Ms Ingram-Moore said she had “regret” over the building a spa and pool complex at their £1.2m home. “We have to accept that we made a decision, and it was probably the wrong one,” she said.

Captain Tom, who was knighted by the late Queen during a unique open-air ceremony at Windsor Castle in the summer of 2020, died in February 2021.

The Independent has contacted the Ingram-Moores for further comment.