Captain Tom charity ‘to close down’ after series of scandals
News comes after The Independent exclusively revealed the Charity Commission launched an investigation into the foundation
The Captain Tom Foundation is set to be closed down, a barrister has revealed during a hearing over a spa pool complex at Hannah Ingram-Moore’s home.
Captain Sir Tom Moore’s daughter attended an appeal hearing against the proposed demolition of the block at her home on Tuesday.
Speaking for the appellants, barrister Scott Stemp revealed that the foundation was “unlikely to exist”.
Later in the meeting, Mr Stemp said: “It’s not news to anybody that the foundation, it seems, is to be closed down following an investigation by the Charity Commission.”
Captain Tom, who served in the Second World War, passed away in February 2021, having raised £38.9m for the NHS by walking 100 laps of his garden before his 100th birthday during the height of the Covid-19 national lockdown.
In February 2022, The Independent exclusively revealed the Captain Tom Foundation, which was established in the wake of his pandemic fundraising efforts, had paid tens of thousands of pounds to companies run by his daughter and her husband, and that the Charity Commission had launched an investigation.
Earlier this month she admitted keeping £800,000 from three books the late army veteran had written, despite the prologue of one of them suggesting the money would go to charity.
Ms Ingram-Moore and her husband Colin applied in 2021 for permission to build a Captain Tom Foundation Building on the grounds of their home in Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire.
The L-shaped building at the centre of the hearing was given the green light, but the planning authority refused a subsequent retrospective application in 2022 for a larger C-shaped building containing a spa pool.
Central Bedfordshire Council said in July that an enforcement notice requiring the demolition of the “now-unauthorised building” was issued.
An appeal against the demolition notice was made to the Planning Inspectorate.
Ms Ingram-Moore, her husband and their son Benji sat together behind their four representatives as the inspector, Diane Fleming, appointed by the secretary of state, heard the appeal on Tuesday.
The family listened to proceedings in the council chamber of Central Bedfordshire Council in Chicksands, with Mr Ingram-Moore occasionally passing notes forward to his representatives.
Ms Ingram-Moore, sitting in the middle of the three, occasionally glanced at a tablet computer.
Ms Fleming said that, when the council issued a demolition notice in November 2022, the C-shaped building, on a disused tennis court, was “substantially complete”.
Chartered surveyor James Paynter, for the appellants, said the scheme had “evolved” to include the spa pool.
“It was felt that a larger building could provide this extra space for this extra facility going forward,” he said.
“The spa pool has the opportunity to offer rehabilitation sessions for elderly people in the area.
“They want to offer one-to-one sessions, only on a once- or twice-per-week basis.
“They felt this extra limb to create a C-shape was needed to create this facility.”
Richard Proctor, planning enforcement team leader for Central Bedfordshire Council, said: “Yes, the tennis court wasn’t ideal but it was significantly less harmful than the building.
“The original building that was approved was because of public good outweighing harm.”
He added: “There hasn’t been any information provided to the council about the use of the spa.”
The inspector noted that the built structure includes a spa pool and “the council say if that balancing exercise was carried out again the balance would be different”.
A document supporting the initial planning application for an L-shaped building said it was to be used partly “in connection with the Captain Tom Foundation and its charitable objectives”.
Mr Stemp said the C-shaped building is unfinished but will have the “appearance of a subservient building”.
He told Ms Fleming: “What you are realistically assessing is the difference between the consented scheme and the as-built scheme.”
Around half a dozen neighbours attended the meeting, with one arguing that the building is “49 per cent bigger than what was consented” and is close to his property, adding: “It’s very brutal.”
In a written appeal statement, Mr Ingram-Moore said the heights of the approved and built buildings “are the same”.
The inspector indicated she would make a site visit, accompanied by representatives for the appellants and the council.
A written decision is to be published at a later date, within six weeks of the one-day hearing.
Captain Tom, who was knighted by the late Queen during a unique open-air ceremony at Windsor Castle in the summer of 2020, died in February 2021.
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