Captain Tom’s daughter’s pool unceremoniously dumped from spa | UK News

The spa pool at the home of Captain Sir Tom Moore’s daughter has been lifted out by a crane as demolition works on the unauthorised building continues.

The pool was hoisted out through the open roof of the building on Friday, the third anniversary of Sir Tom’s death.

Workman, who arrived at the property Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire on Tuesday, have until next Wednesday to demolish the rest of the block.

Hannah Ingram-Moore and her husband Colin lost an appeal against an order to demolish the Captain Tom Foundation Building.

Inspector Diane Fleming ruled in November that the spa block must be demolished within three months, by February 7, and Central Bedfordshire Council said it would be ‘reviewing the onsite position’ the following day, on February 8.

Planning permission had been granted for an L-shaped building in the grounds of the family home – but the planning authority refused a subsequent retrospective application in 2022 for a larger C-shaped building containing a spa pool.

The council issued an enforcement notice in July 2023 requiring the demolition of the ‘unauthorised building’ and the Planning Inspectorate dismissed an appeal against this.

During a hearing in October, chartered surveyor James Paynter, for the appellants, said the spa pool had ‘the opportunity to offer rehabilitation sessions for elderly people in the area’.

But Ms Fleming’s written decision concluded the ‘scale and massing’ of the building had resulted in harm to the grade II-listed Old Rectory – the family’s home.

Sir Captain Tom Moore’s Foundation is currently under investigation by the Charity Commission amid concerns about its management and independence from Sir Tom’s family.

The charity watchdog opened a case into the foundation shortly after the 100-year-old died in 2021 and launched an inquiry in June 2022.

Scott Stemp, representing Ms Ingram-Moore and her husband, said at the appeal hearing that the foundation ‘is to be closed down following an investigation by the Charity Commission’.

Sir Tom raised £38.9 million for the NHS by walking 100 laps of his garden before his 100th birthday, at the height of the first national Covid-19 lockdown in April 2020.

He was knighted by the late Queen during an open-air ceremony at Windsor Castle in the summer of that year.

In a TalkTV interview with Piers Morgan, Ms Ingram-Moore conceded it was a mistake to lodge the planning application for the spa under the Captain Tom Foundation, saying the building was merely meant to bear his name.

She denied the family had sought to give themselves ‘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’.

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