Captain Tom’s daughter’s £200,000 unauthorised spa is lastly demolished

Captain Tom’s daughter’s spa has lastly been demolished after eight days, following a prolonged planning dispute.

Hannah Ingram-Moore and her husband Colin had been ordered to tear down the unauthorised £200,000 constructing by council enforcement.

Workmen had been noticed on the web site in Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire this week. Locals are relieved that the so-called “eyesore” has been eliminated. Sue Martindale, 60, stated: “They live in a big house and they thought they could get away with it. They deserve what they have got.”

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Planning permission had initially been granted for an L-shaped constructing within the grounds of the household house, however a later software in 2022 for a bigger C-shaped constructing containing a spa pool was refused.

In August 2021, permission was granted to construct a Captain Tom Foundation Building, a spot to maintain the Covid hero’s keepsakes. Sir Tom, knighted by the late Queen, raised £38million for NHS charities by strolling 100 sponsored laps of his backyard throughout the 2020 pandemic.

The World War veteran handed away in January 2021 on the age of 100. The couple used the muse’s identify on their preliminary plans however did not apply it to a later software for a bigger constructing with a spa pool.

The council turned down the revised plans in November 2022 and locals signed a petition calling the construction “ugly, featureless, overbearing, oversized and completely out of character”.

In July final 12 months, Central Bedfordshire Council issued an enforcement discover requiring the demolition of the “now-unauthorised building” and stated it was topic to an enchantment to the Planning Inspectorate.

During a listening to in October, chartered surveyor James Paynter urged the spa pool may provide rehabilitation classes for aged individuals within the space. This was dismissed by inspector Diane Fleming who dominated the “scale and massing” of the constructing had harmed the grade II-listed household house.

A 12 months after Ingram-Moore and her husband took over the Captain Tom Foundation in February 2021, the Charity Commission introduced a evaluation into the muse’s accounts because of it giving £160,000 to charities while spending greater than £162,000 on administration prices.

Ingram-Moore’s firm, Club Nook Limited, arrange across the similar time because the charity, additionally acquired reimbursement prices. In June 2022, questions arose concerning whether or not Captain Tom’s household might need benefitted financially from utilizing his identify.

The doubt intensified in October 2023 when Ingram-Moore instructed TalkTV that her household pocketed £800,000 from Captain Tom’s e book earnings as a result of that was “what he wanted”.

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