Illegal Captain Tom spa building will be demolished as appeal deadline passes

Captain Tom Foundation spa building to be demolished. Credit: PA
The spa building, foreground, was built in the grounds of the Old Rectory, right. Credit: PA

The family of Captain Sir Tom Moore must demolish an unauthorised spa pool block at their home, as the deadline for them to mount a High Court challenge has passed without a claim being made.

Hannah Ingram-Moore and her husband, Colin, lost an appeal against an order to remove the Captain Tom Foundation Building in the grounds of the property in Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire, after a hearing in October.

Inspector Diane Fleming ruled in November that the spa block must be demolished within three months, by 7 February.

The family had six weeks in which the appeal decision could be challenged in the High Court.

The Planning Inspectorate said on Wednesday that the deadline to challenge the appeal decision in the High Court has now passed and that no claim has been issued.

Ms Ingram-Moore has been approached for comment.

A Central Bedfordshire Council spokesman said: “The inspector set a deadline of three months from the date of the decision for the building to be demolished and the council will be reviewing the onsite position on 8 February 2024.”

Planning permission had been granted for an L-shaped building in the grounds of the family home, but the planning authority refused a subsequent retrospective application in 2022 for a larger C-shaped building containing a spa pool.

Central Bedfordshire Council issued an enforcement notice in July 2023 requiring the demolition of the “unauthorised building”, and the Planning Inspectorate dismissed an appeal against this.

During a hearing in October, chartered surveyor James Paynter, for the appellants, said the spa pool had “the opportunity to offer rehabilitation sessions for elderly people in the area”.

But Ms Fleming’s written decision concluded the “scale and massing” of the building had resulted in harm to the grade II-listed Old Rectory – the family’s home.

Captain Tom's daughter Hannah Ingram-Moore and her family had challenged the decision. Credit: PA

The foundation is currently the subject of an investigation by the Charity Commission, amid concerns about its management and independence from Sir Tom’s family.

The charity watchdog opened a case into the foundation shortly after the 100-year-old died in 2021, and launched its inquiry in June 2022.

Scott Stemp, representing Ms Ingram-Moore and her husband, said at the appeal hearing that the foundation “is to be closed down following an investigation by the Charity Commission”.

Sir Tom raised £38.9m for the NHS, including gift aid, by walking 100 laps of his garden before his 100th birthday, at the height of the first national Covid-19 lockdown in April 2020.

He was knighted by the late Queen during a unique open-air ceremony at Windsor Castle in the summer of that year.

He died in February 2021.

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