“GIVE me a sledgehammer and I’ll knock the place down myself,” says an elderly woman whose garden is overlooked by the most controversial building in Britain.
Made of unsightly grey blocks, the C-shaped “eyesore” outhouse threatens to tarnish the reputation of brave Covid hero Captain SirTom Moore.
What was meant to be a small charity office for the Captain Tom Foundation has morphed into a spa pool with changing rooms, toilets and showers.
And it has become a focal point for fury aimed at the late war veteran’s daughter and self-styled “leading businesswoman” Hannah Ingram-Moore, 52, who faces extraordinary allegations of exploiting her father’s name and has been ordered by planners to demolish the luxury complex.
Another neighbour — whose beautifully-manicured garden once looked on to trees and a church but is now dominated by a 15ft windowless wall — told The Sun: “We all fell for the Captain Tom hype when the building was first suggested.
“It was to be offices, a place where the 225,000 cards sent from well-wishers could be stored and somewhere the charity could hold press conferences.
“Sadly, we were all duped. Very quickly we realised what they were up to because, from our windows, we could see the builders digging the hole for the pool.”
At the height of the pandemic, the residents of the neat row of pensioners’ bungalows in the smart Bedfordshire village of Marston Mortaine cheered on their 99-year-old neighbour as he vowed to complete a sponsored walk to raise £1,000 for NHS Charities Together.
They marvelled as the world’s media descended on his family’s £1.2million home, the Old Rectory, to watch the Burma veteran attempt 100 laps of his garden on a walking frame before his 100th birthday on April 30, 2020.
He eventually received nearly £39million in donations.
Locals were immensely proud of the elderly Yorkshireman who would chat to them through the fence and was later knighted by the Queen.
So proud, in fact, that when — shortly after Captain Tom’s death in early 2021, his daughter Hannah and her husband applied for permission to build a small office unit to house the old chap’s charity in their three-acre grounds — they had no real objection.
Fast forward two years and many of those neighbours are up in arms that the building is far from what they were expecting.
This week The Sun exclusively revealed how they submitted 86 pages of objections when Hannah and husband Colin Ingram-Moore applied to the local council for retrospective planning permission for the spa centre they had put up without proper consent.
They had applied in their own names for permission but used the foundation’s name in the design and other documents.
We also revealed that trustees of the Captain Tom Foundation were not aware of the pool application and would have blocked it.
As the storm clouds gathered, we tried unsuccessfully to contact Hannah by text and also via the gate intercom, through which — in the spring and summer of 2020 — we were regularly invited in.
But we were told they were away and would not be speaking.
How different from the warm September afternoon in 2020 when I sat with Captain Tom as he explained how the new charity his family had set up would help the causes closest to his heart.
Mum-of-two Hannah was at his side, just as she had been for 400 previous interviews with the world’s media, masterminding his PR.
The family were proud to announce the Captain Tom Foundation would continue his legacy and raise money to give to charities supporting military veterans, the lonely, hospices and young people.
At the time, Sir Tom told The Sun: “While people are contributing, I will give people some hope, give them something to look forward to.”
Even strangers donated in their thousands, giving over £1million to the Captain Tom Foundation following his moving appeal.
Yet this week, the foundation announced on its website that it is taking no more pledges and is closing its payment channels.
Two years ago, we revealed that the Charities Commission watchdog was looking into the foundation.
Its probe is scrutinising accounts after the charity paid £54,000 to two companies belonging to Hannah and her husband.
The books showed the foundation — which sold Captain Tom gin, roses and T-shirts on its website — donated £160,000 to good causes while spending £240,000 on management and fundraising.
Hannah has always denied that the Charity Commission blocked her appointment as £150,000-a-year chief executive.
But she was paid the equivalent of £85,000 a year as interim CEO for nine months until a full-time boss took over.
Hannah has also strongly denied any financial wrongdoing and last week NHS Charities Together put out a statement confirming that every penny of the £38.9million raised by Captain Tom’s heroic walk went to help NHS workers.
In a statement on her website, Hannah said it had been “hurtful to my family and me to read allegations and slurs in social media” and added that some posters have “conflated the enormous amount raised by my father and paid directly to NHS charities, and money raised by the Captain Tom Foundation”.
But it has done little to calm fury over the controversial pool house.
This week, Twitter was awash with messages, including: “He did laps of the garden so she could do laps of her pool.”
Pauline Latham, MP for Mid Derbyshire said: “This is terribly sad because Captain Tom’s fund-raising was done in good faith for the NHS.
“His legacy should be honoured and respected, but this seems to be completely at odds with what they should be allowed to do.
“If they applied to build an office — which seems a bit excessive to me — then they should build an office and not a luxury spa.”
Away from the foundation, Hannah has forged a new career as a life coach, business coach for executives and media trainer.
Her website, with the tagline “Business. Family. Leader”, says she charges £250 an hour or £725 for three sessions of 60 minutes.
Describing herself as “one of Britain’s leading businesswomen”,
Hannah poses on the famous garden patio that Captain Tom walked up and down.
She announces: “I feel the weight of responsibility for doing the right thing, for not letting people down and responding to the love and compassion that has come our way.”
In an article on the site about resilience, she says: “There are times when we must persevere and face our fears head-on.”
Yet on Wednesday, as our story about the planning row was followed up around the world, Hannah posted a family photo taken on the top-floor balcony of a villa facing a picturesque sunset on the social media site BeReal.
In recent years, the Ingram–Moores have regularly travelled to Spain where Captain Tom owned a luxury villa at Club Valderrama, a championship golf course a few miles from Gibraltar, bought with proceeds from the sale of a cement company.
Last week, Hannah was pictured drinking champagne and posing for selfies at a party organised by posh department store Fortnum and Mason.
Its logo is on her website alongside other prestigious brands including handbag outlet Mulberry, Swatch Group, Gap, Laura Ashley and Liberty of London.
Days earlier, she posed with her son in the VIP marquee at the Royal Windsor Cup Final at the Guards Polo Club, where the trophy was presented by Prince Edward.
The family have appealed Central Bedfordshire Council’s ruling that the spa building be demolished.
But their neighbours won’t be happy until it is gone.
Jilly Bozdogan lives with her 99-year-old mother. Their home backs on to the pool house. She said: “When we saw it, I was appalled.
“It obviously didn’t adhere to the planning application they submitted and, to be honest, it’s an eyesore.”
Vanessa Fraser, who lives nearby, added: “I think it’s a shame for Captain Sir Tom Moore’s legacy that it’s brought the village into disrepute a little bit.
“He’d done such great work for charity.”
- Additional reporting by Rob Pattinson and Michael Hamilton.
