The daughter of NHS fundraising hero Captain Tom Moore has been ordered to demolish an unauthorised building at her home. Planners rejected the scheme for a spa and pool at the house in Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire.
Hannah Ingram-Moore, 52, and her husband Colin applied in 2021 for permission to build a Captain Tom Foundation Building in the grounds of their home. The L-shaped building was given the green light, and in a design and access and heritage statement it was described as to be used partly “in connection with The Captain Tom Foundation and its charitable objectives”.
However the building was then put up not in accordance with the plans - instead it was a larger C-shaped structure and now planners have ordered it to be knocked down after retrospective permission for the larger size and containing a spa pool was refused.
A resident told the Mirror: “It was still a bit of a shell last summer. It was an L-shape or a C-shape. It was still under construction, although the main body was done. No one [outside the grounds of the property] could see it really, apart from the roof, because it’s quite low.”
A spokesperson for Central Bedfordshire Council, which Tories lost to no overall control this year, said: “An enforcement notice requiring the demolition of the now-unauthorised building was issued and this is now subject to an appeal to the Planning Inspectorate.”
The Mirror said efforts have been made to approach Mrs Ingram-Moore for comment on the development.
The Captain Tom Foundation has stopped taking money from donors after planning chiefs ordered that the unauthorised building be demolished. A spokesperson for the charity said: “At this moment in time, the sole focus of The Captain Tom Foundation is to ensure that it cooperates fully with the ongoing Statutory Inquiry by the Charity Commission. As a result, The Captain Tom Foundation is not presently actively seeking any funding from donors.
“Accordingly, we have also taken the decision to close all payment channels whilst the Statutory Inquiry remains open. Once the findings of the Statutory Inquiry have been communicated, The Captain Tom Foundation will be in a better position to make a decision in relation to its future, but for now, our main priority is to assist the Charity Commission with its enquiry.
“In the meantime, on behalf of the trustees of The Captain Tom Foundation, we wish to extend a warm thank you to all our supporters who have enabled us to help charities that were close to Captain Sir Tom’s heart.”
A spokesperson for Central Bedfordshire Council, the planning authority for the area, said on Tuesday it received a planning application in August 2021 for the erection of a detached single storey building by the occupiers of the home of the Ingram-Moores and the Captain Tom Foundation.
It said this was approved.
In 2022, planners subsequently received a retrospective planning application for a “part retrospective erection of detached single-storey building (revised proposals)”, which was refused, the spokesperson said.
The council spokesperson said: “An enforcement notice requiring the demolition of the now-unauthorised building was issued and this is now subject to an appeal to the Planning Inspectorate.”
