Demolition work begins on Captain Tom Moore’s family’s luxury spa complex as high-end gym equipment is cleared out
DEMOLITION work finally appears to have begun on Captain Tom Moore’s family’s luxury spa complex.
Workmen were seen arriving at the home in Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire, today.
Snaps showed building waste piling up outside Hannah Ingram-Moore‘s £1.2million Bedfordshire mansion.
Pots of paint, a running machine and black bin bags were heaped next to an exterior wall.
Hannah and her husband had six weeks to try to save the “unauthorised” building after losing a court case in October.
The deadline for a judicial review passed last month – with the family failing to launch an appeal.
This means the £200,000 complex will be demolished by February 7.
Hannah and husband Colin had battled to overturn a council decision to tear down the complex.
The Planning Inspectorate previously ruled the building will have to be come down in three months as it was built illegally at their £1.2million mansion.
Inspector Diane Fleming said the “scale and massing” of the building had “resulted in harm” to The Old Rectory – the Grade II listed family home in Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire.
As well as tearing the spa down, the family will need to remove all building materials and restore the land to its “former condition”.
The building is wholly different to the application
Richard Proctor
Hannah and her husband had initially received permission from Central Bedfordshire Council to build a small charity office for the Captain Tom Foundation.
Plans for the L-shaped building at the seven-bed mansion in Marston Moretaine were given the green light in 2021.
Hannah and husband Colin had applied in their own names for planning — but used the foundation’s name in the design and access and heritage statement.
The statement claimed the building was to be used partly “in connection with The Captain Tom Foundation and its charitable objectives”.
A subsequent 2022 retrospective application – which is sought after something has already been built – to extend the originally approved building to form a C-shape, containing a spa pool, was refused by the planning authority.
The structure was referred to as The Captain Tom Building and described as “a new building for use by the occupiers”, aka Hannah and Colin.
Hannah and Colin then created a poolhouse with changing rooms, toilets and showers to sit alongside their £1.2million home.
The court heard this later “evolved” to include the spa pool.
Chartered surveyor James Paynter, speaking for the family, suggested it could be used for “rehabilitation sessions for elderly people in the area”.
But Richard Proctor, Planning Enforcement Team Leader, said: “The Council’s position is that the building is wholly different to the application.”
The court was also told the Captain Tom Foundation will be shut down when a probe by the Charity Commission is over.
How Captain Sir Tom Moore rose to fame & his daughter's controversies
- March 2020 – D-Day veteran Captain Tom Moore walks 100 laps around his Bedfordshire garden before his 100th birthday, raising £30million for the NHS during the first lockdown.
- April 2020 – Captain Tom reaches No. 1 in the charts with his cover of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’. He receives 100,000 cards for his 100th birthday, which is marked with a Battle of Britain flypast. A train is named after him.
- July 2020 – Captain Tom is knighted by the Queen in a special private ceremony at Windsor Castle.
- September 2020 – Hannah Ingram-Moore launches the Captain Tom Foundation to combat loneliness.
- December 2020 – Drones swarm into the shape of Captain Tom’s face at the New Year’s Eve firework display in London.
- February 2021 – Captain Sir Tom Moore dies after catching covid-19.
- February 2022 – The Charity Commission launches a probe into the Captain Tom foundation after it paid £50,000 to companies run by Hannah Ingram-Moore and her husband Colin.
- July 2023 – The foundation stops accepting donations. Planning chiefs order Hannah to tear down an unauthorised spa at her Bedfordshire home. The building had been approved to be used “in connection with the Captain Tom Foundation and its charitable objectives”. But a larger building with a spa pool was built instead and was denied retrospective planning permission. Hannah appeals.
- September 2023 – accounts reveal Hannah received more than £70,000 to head the foundation.
- October 2023 – Hannah loses her appeal and is ordered to demolish the spa and restore the garden to its original condition.
- January 2023 – Demolition work begins.