Captain Tom: Scaffolders arrive ahead of spa demolition

Scaffolders have arrived at Captain Tom's daughter's home as the deadline for demolition of an unauthorised spa pool block draws closer.

Workmen have started putting up poles at the site in Marston Moretaine in Bedfordshire.

Hannah Ingram-Moore and her husband Colin lost an appeal in October against an order to remove the Captain Tom Foundation building at their property.

It was ruled the building must be taken down by 7 February.

Central Bedfordshire Council said it would be "reviewing the onsite position" on 8 February.

A workman told South Beds News Agency: "We are putting scaffolding up today. The pool will be removed before the building is knocked down on Monday."

The building was named after Capt Sir Tom Moore, who raised £38m for the NHS by walking laps of his garden during the coronavirus lockdown in 2020. He died a year later, aged 100.

After the army veteran died in February 2021 his family set up a separate charity in his honour.

The Captain Tom Foundation is currently under investigation by the Charity Commission amid concerns his family may have profited from using his name.

During the Planning Inspectorate hearing, family lawyer Scott Stemp said the foundation was "unlikely to exist" in the future.

Planning permission was initially granted for an L-shaped building in the grounds of the family home.

Revised proposals for a C-shaped building were then submitted in February 2022, which included a spa pool, toilets and a kitchen "for private use" - which the planning authority refused.

In July 2023 an enforcement notice from Central Bedfordshire Council required the demolition of the "unauthorised building".

The couple tried to appeal the order, telling a hearing the building could be used for coffee mornings and charity meetings to combat loneliness for elderly people.

Representatives for the family said the building would enable the public to enjoy the army veteran's work and the spa pool would offer rehabilitation sessions.

In November Inspector Diane Fleming ruled the spa had to be it demolished within three months.

In a letter announcing the decision, Ms Fleming said the "scale and massing" of the partially-built building had "resulted in harm" to The Old Rectory, the family home and a Grade II-listed building.

Ms Ingram-Moore and her husband asked for 12 months to comply with the demolition notice, but this request was refused by the Planning Inspectorate.

The deadline for the family to lodge a High Court appeal opposing the demolition passed in December.

Neighbour Lesley Gough, 67, who has lived in the village for three years, believed the family thought they would be "protected no matter what they did."

"We were very surprised there was going to be a spa - we were all under the understanding it would be a memorial to Captain Tom," she explained.

"It's going to be a lot of upheaval for them… They got it wrong and now they're paying the price.

"They've lost all that goodness we had, nobody is remembering all the good, it's really sad."

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