Exact date Captain Tom's family must demolish spa pool as latest court bid fails
Captain Tom's family will have to tear down their luxury spa pool within days after their latest court appeal was tossed out and the deadline now gone.
The late veteran's daughter Hannah Ingram-Moore and husband Colin have been ordered to demolish the block which was erected without proper planning permission in the garden of their Bedfordshire mansion. While the original plan for an outbuilding was given the green light, the family's finished building breached the authorised blueprint and a retrospective planning request was denied.
The couple later challenged the decision, but a hearing in October - which heard how the Captain Tom Foundation set up in the fundraiser's name was to fold over scandal surrounding finances - rejected their appeal. Inspector Diane Fleming ruled in November that the spa block must be demolished within three months, by February 7.
The family had six weeks in which the appeal decision could be challenged in the High Court. The Planning Inspectorate said on Wednesday that the deadline to challenge the appeal decision in the High Court has now passed and that no claim has been issued. Ms Ingram-Moore has been approached for comment.
A Central Bedfordshire Council spokesman said: “The inspector set a deadline of three months from the date of the decision for the building to be demolished and the council will be reviewing the onsite position on February 8 2024.” Planning permission had been granted for an L-shaped building on 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.
Teachers, civil servants and train drivers walk out in biggest strike in decade
Central Bedfordshire 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. The foundation is currently the subject of an 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 its 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, 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 was knighted by the late Queen during a unique open-air ceremony at Windsor Castle in the summer of that year. He died in February 2021.
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
