Captain Sir Tom Moore's daughter has appealed against a demolition notice for a spa pool complex outbuilding to her £1.2 million house.
Hannah Ingram-Moore, 52, had originally been grantedplanning permissionto build a single-storey building next to her Grade II-listed house, The Old Rectory, in Bedford.
However, she was later forced to apply for retrospective planning permission as the building was not what was proposed in the initial plans.
The retrospective planning was rejected due to not being in-keeping with the design of the area and a demolition notice was given by the council. She has now appealed this decision.
Home surrounded by medieval moat
The property in question serves as both the residence of the applicants and the late Captain Tom Moore and is set in a historic area.
The village where The Old Rectory is located has three medieval moated sites, one of which partially surrounds former Clergy house. The red brick house was built in the 18th century with clay tiled roofs.
In 2012 the property was put up for sale at an asking price of £1,500,000 and was advertised as having four reception rooms, seven bedrooms and four bathrooms.
网球场是定位在西方ern edge of The Old Rectory's curtilage, to the west of the moat, and next to an existing 1.8m high laurel hedge.
Originals plans for charity and domestic use
The original proposals for the site was to replace the tennis court in the south-west of the application site with a single-storey detached building.
The building plans had a L-shaped floor plan, with a traditional flat roof and it was claimed: "The Proposed Use of the Building is confirmed as for purposes incidental to the existing dwelling including private domestic use, interviews, and charity functions."
It is unclear whether the new pool building retained these functions.
Although the building's purpose is primarily for activities related to the main house, and so would normally fall under permitted development right, it falls within the curtilage of a Listed Building, and so required planning approval.
It was also proposed that a path would be formed from the existing house to the outbuilding. The proposals also called for a laurel hedge to be removed.
These proposals were approved by Central Bedfordshire Council in November 2021.
Demolition notice given for spa pool complex
Instead of the original plans, the daughter of Captain Tom Moore, Hannah Ingram-Moore and her husband, Colin, erected a spa pool complex.
The couple were forced to apply for retrospective planning permission to alter their plans or face having to tear down the building. The revised building plans had a C-shaped floor plan for spa pool complex with a length of 21m and 15m width.
The building plans included a 3m internal ceiling height, with a traditional pitched roof in order to be sympathetic to the setting of the listed building.
It was ruled by the Central Bedfordshire council that: "The proposed outbuilding, would result in unacceptable harm by virtue of size, design and siting within the curtilage of a Listed Building and would lead to an overdevelopment of the site comprising an unsympathetic and dominating structure that fails to represent the informal open character of the site and lacks the due subservience."
It was also ruled: "the proposed scheme fails to have special regard to the desirability of preserving the setting of the Listed Building, and is therefore contrary to Section 16(2) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990."
The retrospectiveplanning permission was refused和当地公司颁发的拆迁通知uncil, which was referred to in planning documents as the "Captain Tom Building”.
Appeal claims damages would be "outweighed by public benefits"
An appeal was lodged against the rejection of the retrospective planning application to the Secretary of State under section 78 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.
The Heritage Statement accepted that the retrospective plans "introduced a degree of change" to the original plans, however, it was claimed that the proposals sought to "mitigate the degree of impact through the use of sensitively considered materials, design, and where possible by planting trees between the site and principal building."
The appeal also stated that any harm the changes to the low-medium value Old Rectory would be "outweighed by the anticipated public benefits of the associated planning proposal."
The appeal also refutes the claim the development is not in keeping with the character of the area as it does not represent high-quality development.
In the appeal statement, it was claimed that: "When clad in the approved material (black timber and dwarf walls) the subject building will not be out of character."
The appeal is ongoing.
