Captain Tom’s daughter Hannah Ingram-Moore LOSES controversial spa planning appeal and is ordered to demolish extension
CAPTAIN Tom's family have three months to demolish a controversial luxury spa complex they built in his name after losing a court appeal.
Hannah Ingram-Moore and her husband had battled to overturn a council decision to tear down the "unauthorised" building.
But the Planning Inspectorate today ruled the complex will have to be come down in three months as it was built illegally at their £1.2million mansion.
Inspector Diane Fleming said the "scale and massing" of the building had "resulted in harm" to The Old Rectory - the Grade II listed family home in Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire.
As well as tearing the spa down, the family will need to remove all building materials and restore the land to its "former condition".
The family now have six weeks to appeal the decision.
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Hannah and her husband had initially received permission from Central Bedfordshire Council to build a small charity office for the Captain Tom Foundation.
Plans for the L-shaped building at the seven-bed mansion in Marston Moretaine were given the green light in 2021.
Hannah and husband Colin had applied in their own names for planning — but used the foundation’s name in the design and access and heritage statement.
The statement claimed the building was to be used partly "in connection with The Captain Tom Foundation and its charitable objectives".
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A subsequent 2022 retrospective application - which is sought after something has already been built - to extend the originally approved building to form a C-shape, containing a spa pool, was refused by the planning authority.
The structure was referred to as The Captain Tom Building and described as "a new building for use by the occupiers", aka Hannah and Colin.
Hannah and Colin then created a poolhouse with changing rooms, toilets and showers to sit alongside their £1.2million home.
The court heard this later "evolved" to include the spa pool.
Chartered surveyor James Paynter, speaking for the family, suggested it could be used for "rehabilitation sessions for elderly people in the area".
But Richard Proctor, Planning Enforcement Team Leader, said: “The Council’s position is that the building is wholly different to the application.”
The court was also told the Captain Tom Foundation will be shut down when a probe by the Charity Commission is over.
Today's decision comes after Hannah admitted she had made a mistake in an interview with TalkTV's Piers Morgan.
She said: "We have to accept that we made a decision, and it was probably the wrong one."
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The family also confessed to pocketing money from the £39million NHS fund-raising veteran in the bombshell interview.
A tearful Hannah revealed they kept £800,000 from the three books her dad had written - claiming he had wanted them to keep the profits.
