Military News Today

The National Planning Inspectorate rejected Hannah Ingram-Moore & her husbands appeal against Bedfordshire Councils order to tear down an unauthorised spa they built in their back garden.

Hannah Ingram-Moore, the daughter of the late Captain Tom who received a Knighthood for his amazing charity fund raising that saw him walking round his garden on his zimmer frame which raised over £30million for the NHS set up a charity in her fathers name called The Captain Moore Foundation.

Using the Foundations name, Moore and her husband built an unauthorised large spa building in the grounds of their £1.2million home in Bedfordshire and then went of to ask for retrospective planning permission that the Bedfordshire Council denied and ordered it to be demolished. Representatives of the Moore family have claimed that the spa would “enable Captain Tom’s story to be enjoyed by the public” and could be used for coffee mornings and twice weekly for spa rehabilitation for the elderly.

The National Planning Inspectorate however have rejected the appeal, ruling that the spas size was “at odds” with the Grade II listed family home. Looking at the aerial photos of the Moores home, clearly show the spa covers almost the same square footage of the family home.

The Moores claim in documents appealing against the notice, the family said the building was “no more overbearing” than a previously approved planning application and the “heights are the same”. However the building now is substantially larger in square footage and the inspectorate upheld the Bedfordshire Council decision stating the “form of the new building is disproportionately broad and is at odds with the pleasingly domestic scale” of the main house.”

The inspector Diane Fleming went on to say “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],”.

Fleming went on to addressed a suggestion, put forward on behalf of the family at the appeal, that the new building would enable “Captain Tom’s story to be enjoyed by the public” and be “supported by the appellant’s personal charity work”.

The inspector said in her ruling said “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.”

The Captain Tom Foundation was founded in June 2020 in honour of Sir Tom after he won the hearts of the country with his charity fund raising for the NHS during the COVID pandemic and is currently being investigated by the Charity Commission. The Moores used the Captain Tom Foundation name on the first set of plans for the building, but went on to change the plans without permission from Bedfordshire Council.

The Moores stated the building would be used partly “in connection with The Captain Tom Foundation and its charitable objectives”.

However, the foundation’s name was not used on the subsequent retrospective application for a larger building containing a spa pool, which was refused by the planning authority in November last year. At the time, the block was partially built.

The family have been given three months to comply with the existing demolition order.