Captain Tom’s family appeal against order to demolish controversial spa pool

A hearing to determine if the family of Captain Sir Tom Moore must demolish a controversial spa pool block built in their garden will take place later today.

The late fundraiser’s daughter Hannah Ingram-Moore and her husband Colin are appealing against a demolition order that was imposed after the pair built the pool without permission from the planning authority.

Bosses at Central Bedfordshire Council granted permission for a Captain Tom Foundation Building on the grounds of their £1.2m home in Marston Moretaine in 2021.

Plans for the site said it would be used partly “in connection with The Captain Tom Foundation in its charitable objectives”.

However, a retrospective application for a larger building containing a spa pool was refused by the planning authority last year.

A subsequent enforcement notice requiring the demolition of the “now-unauthorised building” was issued – subject to an appeal to the Planning Inspectorate.

In documents submitted for the appeal, the family said the structure was “no more overbearing than the consented scheme”.

In an interview with TalkTV’s Piers Morgan earlier this month, Ms Ingram-Moore said it was a mistake to lodge the planning application under the name of the Captain Tom Foundation charity, arguing it was merely because the building was meant to bear his name.

She also denied seeking to give the family “a little treat”, claiming the paperwork was filed after her father’s death “because we wanted it as part of that legacy, and because it was a nice thing to do”.

When asked by Morgan if it might be “good optics” to get rid of the building, the family insisted it had been paid for with “all personal money” and “not one penny” from anywhere else.

Ms Ingram-Moore also admitted her family kept £800,000 profits from three books her father had written, claiming Sir Tom would have wanted them to keep the money in Club Nook Ltd – a firm separate to the Captain Tom Foundation charity.

When asked questioned by Morgan, the family insisted there was no suggestion anyone who bought the books thought the money was going to charity.

However, the prologue to his autobiography, Tomorrow Will Be A Good Day, reads: “Astonishingly at my age, with the offer to write this memoir I have also been given the chance to raise even more money for the charitable foundation now established in my name”.

Sir Tom became a well-known figure when he raised more than £38m for the NHS by walking 100 laps of his garden before his 100^th birthday at the height of the first national Covid-19 lockdown in April 2020.

He was knighted by the Queen during an open-air ceremony at Windsor Castle in summer 2020.

He died in February 2021.