Captain Tom's family will demolish unauthorised £200k spa building after they failed to lodge appeal
3 January 2024, 17:19 | Updated: 3 January 2024, 17:24
The family of Captain Tom will be forced to demolish their £200,000 unauthorised spa complex after they failed to meet the deadline for a High Court appeal.
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Captain Sir Tom's daughter Hannah Ingram-Moore and husband Colin applied in 2021 for permission to build a 'Captain Tom Building' at their £1.2 million Bedfordshire home.
Central Bedfordshire Council subsequently approved the application for the L-shaped building, but the Moore family filed a retrospective application in 2022 for a larger C-shaped building that would contain a spa.
The council refused the follow-up application and issued an enforcement notice demanding the spa building be knocked down.
The Moore family appealed the ruling and a hearing was held in October. The Planning Inspectorate finalised its decision by rejecting the appeal last month.
They had six weeks to apply for a judicial review, but a spokesperson for the authority told The Independent today that the family had not submitted an appeal.
Ms Ingram-Moore had claimed at a Planning Inspectorate hearing in October that she wanted to use the spa pool at her home to host rehab sessions for local elderly people, as well as coffee mornings.
Stressing it was not for the family's benefit, Ms Ingram-Moore said they would also store cards and gifts from Captain Tom's supporters, as well as an office space.
Locals complained about the structure, leading to a planning inspector visiting the site in March 2022. They reported back that "windows were covered and access to the inside of the building was not possible".
The local council said the C-shaped building, built on a tennis court, was almost twice as big as what had been approved.
Releasing an appeal statement at the time, Mr Ingram-Moore said: "The subject building is no more overbearing than the consented scheme.
"The view is virtually identical save for a pitch roof being added to the elevational treatment. The heights are the same. As such there cannot be an unacceptable overbearing impact."
Sir Tom raised £38.9 million for the NHS at the height of the first national Covid-19 lockdown in April 2020 by walking 100 laps of his garden before his 100th birthday. He died in February 2021.
It comes after an investigation was launched into the Captain Tom Foundation earlier this year after the Charity Commission found £160,000 had been given to charities in the foundation's first year but more than £162,000 had been paid in management costs over the same 12 months.
The investigation was launched after the charity paid more than £50,000 to companies run by Ms Ingram-Moore and her husband Colin, who were both trustees of the charity.
Ms Ingram-Moore resigned six weeks after the investigation was launched. She was forced to defend pocketing an estimated £800,000 of profits from the sales of Captain Tom's books.
She said the Second World War veteran "specifically" said the money should go to her business Club Nook, and there was never a suggestion it should go to charity.
Ms Ingram-Moore also previously admitted to keeping £800,000 from the three books her dad had written - claiming he had wanted them to keep the profits.
