Captain Tom’s daughter Hannah Ingram-Moore ordered to tear down spa and pool built using father’s name

Planning chiefs have ordered an unauthorised building in Captain Tom’s daughter’s home to be demolished.

Plans for a block containing a spa pool in the grounds of the seven-bedroom property in Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire, have been rejected.

Hannah Ingram-Moore and her husband Colin applied for permission to build a Captain Tom Foundation Building in the grounds in 2021. The L-shaped building was given the green light, and in a design and access and heritage statement it was described as to be used partly “in connection with The Captain Tom Foundation and its charitable objectives”.

A subsequent retrospective application in 2022, for a larger C-shaped building containing a spa pool, was refused by the planning authority. In supporting documents, it was described as “a new building for use by the occupiers” of the home of Mr and Mrs Ingram-Moore. In a design and access and heritage statement, it was referred to as The Captain Tom Building.

A spokesperson for Central Bedfordshire Council, the planning authority for the area, said on Tuesday (4 July) that it received a planning application in August 2021 for the erection of a detached single storey building by the occupiers of the home of the Ingram-Moores and the Captain Tom Foundation. It said this was approved.

In 2022, planners later received a retrospective planning application for a “part retrospective erection of detached single-storey building (revised proposals)”, which was refused, the spokesperson added.

The council spokesperson said: “An enforcement notice requiring the demolition of the now-unauthorised building was issued and this is now subject to an appeal to the Planning Inspectorate.”

The Captain Tom Foundation has now stopped taking money from donors after planning chiefs ordered the demolition of the unauthorised building. The foundation said in a statement on Tuesday that it would not seek donations and was closing all payment channels while the Charity Commission carried out an inquiry.

It said: “At this moment in time, the sole focus of the Captain Tom Foundation is to ensure that it co-operates fully with the ongoing statutory inquiry by the Charity Commission.

“As a result, the Captain Tom Foundation is not presently actively seeking any funding from donors. Accordingly, we have also taken the decision to close all payment channels while the statutory inquiry remains open.

“Once the findings of the statutory inquiry have been communicated, the Captain Tom Foundation will be in a better position to make a decision in relation to its future, but for now, our main priority is to assist the Charity Commission with its inquiry.

“In the meantime, on behalf of the trustees of the Captain Tom Foundation, we wish to extend a warm thank you to all our supporters who have enabled us to help charities that were close to Captain Sir Tom’s heart.”

Sir Tom raised £38.9 million for the NHS, including Gift Aid, 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 died in February 2021.

The Charity Commission opened an inquiry into the foundation in June 2022 after identifying concerns about the charity’s management and independence from the late veteran’s family.

The foundation previously said, in a statement to a national newspaper: “At no time were the Captain Tom Foundation’s independent trustees aware of planning permissions made by Mr and Mrs Ingram-Moore purporting to be in the foundation’s name. Had they been aware of any applications, the independent trustees would not have authorised them.”