Captain Tom’s daughter’s unauthorised spa totally flattened as demolition finally complete

Contractors are clearing the remains of the £200,000 unauthorised spa at the home of Captain Sir Tom Moore’s daughter.

The demolition work on the complex began on Monday (February 5th) and saw a digger pull down the walls of the spa at the home of Hannah Ingram-Moore and her husband Colin.

Plans were initially granted for a building within the grounds of the family home to host memorabilia and celebrate Captain Sir Tom’s legacy.

But later, updated proposals submitted for the partly constructed building also included a spa pool, toilets and a kitchen, which a document called the ‘design and access and heritage statement’ said was ‘for private use’.

The structure became bigger than originally planned with some neighbours describing it as a ‘monstrosity’ and an ‘eyesore’.

The couple lost an appeal last October against the order for the removal of the structure at the residence in Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire.

During the hearing, chartered surveyor James Paynter, for Ms Ingram-Moore and her husband, said the pool spa had the ‘opportunity to offer rehabilitation sessions for elderly people in the area’.

However, the final decision concluded the ‘scale and massing’ of the structure had resulted in harm to the grade II-listed Old Rectory.

A deadline of February 7th was then set for the demolition of the structure.

The Captain Tom Foundation is subject to an investigation by the Charity Commission over concerns regarding its financial relationship with members of the Ingram-Moore family.

The charity watchdog opened a case into the foundation shortly after Sir Captain Tom’s passing in 2021, and launched its inquiry the following June.

Scott Stemp, representing Ms Ingram-Moore, said at the appeal that the foundation ‘is to be closed down following an investigation by the Charity Commission’.

The spa was named after Captain Sir Tom who raised £38 million for the NHS during the Covid lockdown in 2020 by walking laps around his garden. 

The army veteran was knighted for his work to help the NHS by the late Queen in the summer of the same year.

Sir Captain Tom passed away in February 2021 at the age of 100.