Spa D-Day is set for Captain Tom’s daughter as she fights demolition order
Captain Tom’s daughter has been given a court date to argue againt the demolition of a spa complex built using the charity’s name.
Hanna Ingram-Moore and her husband Colin were given permission to construct an L-shaped Captain Tom Foundation Building on the grounds of their Bedfordshire home back in 2021.
They then submitted a retrospective application in 2022 for a larger, C-shape building containing a spa pool, which was subsequently rejected by the local planning authority.
They had applied for planning permission using their own names, but used the charity’s name in statements concerning the building’s heritage, design and access, The Sun reports.
The Ingram-Moore’s neighbours have previously described the new structure as an ‘eyesore.’
Central Bedfordshire Council claims there is ‘harm caused to the setting of the listed building’.
It has also taken issue with ‘the significant difference between the two schemes that arises from the lack of sufficient public benefit that has been proposed in respect of the unauthorised building’.
Last month, the authority said demolition of the second building had been authorised.
It is now subject to a pending appeal by the family, who will make their case at a hearing scheduled for October 17.
The family have said the spa pool building is ‘no more overbearing’ than the one previously approved, claiming public view of the property is ‘virtually identical’ and the heights of the two buildings are the same.
They added the council had ‘no grounds supporting the refusal of the retrospective application’ and requested the inspectorate uphold their appeal.
A decorated veteran of the Second World War, Sir Tom raised just under £40 million for the NHS during the pandemic by walking 100 laps of his garden ahead of his 100th birthday in April 2020.
He died in February 2021, having received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth at an open-air ceremony in Windsor Castle the previous summer.
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