Captain Tom’s daughter concedes to being reduced to using public spas
The spa pool block built by the family of Captain Sir Tom Moore will be ripped down after they declined to appeal a demolition order by last month’s deadline.
Hannah Ingram-Moore and her husband Colin applied in 2021 for permission to build a Captain Tom Foundation Building in the grounds of 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 issued an enforcement notice in July requiring the demolition of the ‘unauthorised building’, and the Planning Inspectorate dismissed a later appeal.
The latter body has now confirmed the family did not file another challenge before the deadline elapsed in December, the Independent reports.
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 last year.
Sir Tom raised £38.9 million 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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