The family of Captain Sir Tom Moore have lost a planning application appeal for a spa complex in their garden and have been given three months to demolish the structure.
Moore’s daughter Hannah Ingram-Moore, 53, and her husband, Colin, 66, appealed against a demolition order by Central Bedfordshire council for what they have called the Captain Tom Foundation Building in the grounds of their Bedfordshire home.
They were given planning permission for an L-shaped building in 2021 but instead built a larger £200,000 C-shaped one containing a spa pool.
When they submitted a retrospective application in 2022 for the partially built structure, the planning authority refused it and they were issued an enforcement notice requiring the demolition of the “now-unauthorised building”.
After a hearing last month, the Planning Inspectorate has dismissed the family’s appeal, saying the “scale and massing” of the building “resulted in harm” to the Old Rectory, the Grade II-listed building where the family live in Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire.
The inspector, Diane Fleming, said the “form of the new building is disproportionately broad and is at odds with the pleasingly domestic scale” of the main house.
“I find the erection of the new building erodes the positive contribution that the setting, provided by the extensive grounds, makes to the [main property],” she wrote in her decision.
She concluded “the actual removal of the building should take no more than three months” after the appellants argued it would take a year to comply with the order.
A document supporting the initial planning application said the building would be used partly “in connection with the Captain Tom Foundation and its charitable objectives”, such as hosting coffee mornings and presentations to the press.
After the pool and sauna were added to the building, the family said they wanted to use it to offer rehabilitation sessions for elderly people in the area.
The inspector’s decision said: “I accept that the appellant’s intentions are laudable; however, it has not been demonstrated in any detail how all of this would work in practice.
“In the absence of any substantiated information, I find the suggested public benefit would therefore not outweigh the great weight to be given to the harm to the heritage asset.”
In a written appeal statement, Ingram-Moore said the heights of the approved and built buildings were the same, and Fleming concluded the building did not cause “unacceptable harm” to the surrounding area as it was largely out of view.
Moore’s family have come under increasing scrutiny in recent months over their handling of the late fundraiser’s legacy. He raised £38.9m for the NHS Charities Together by walking 100 laps of his garden before his 100th birthday at the height of the first national Covidlockdown in April 2020.
He was knighted by the late queen in the summer of that year and died in February 2021 after testing positive for Covid.
In an interview with Piers Morgan on TalkTV last month, Ingram-Moore said she had kept £800,000 from books that the late army veteran had written, saying he had wanted them to retain the profits.
The Captain Tom Foundation has been under investigation by the Charity Commission for more than a year in relation to potential conflicts of interest between the charity and businesses owned by the Ingram-Moores as well as concerns over mismanagement and compliance with charity law.
Councillor Mary Walsh, executive member for planning at Central Bedfordshire council, said: “Naturally, we are pleased that the planning inspector has dismissed this appeal and upheld the council’s requirement that the building is demolished.
“The inspector agreed with the council that the proposed use of the building was not justified and that, by virtue of its size and appearance, caused sufficient harm to warrant its removal.”
A council spokesman said the appeal decision could be challenged in the high court within six weeks.
• This article was amended on 7 November 2023. An earlier version said that Captain Sir Tom Moore raised £38.9m for the NHS; this should have said the NHS Charities Together.
