Transgender people keep access to Hampstead ponds

Transgender people can continue to use Hamstead Heath's bathing ponds after the City of London Corporation (CLC) voted to keep the existing policy in place.

Transgender women, whose biological sex is male, can continue to use Kenwood Ladies' Pond, while Highgate Men's Pond will be open to transgender men, whose biological sex is female. The mixed pond remains open to all.

The CLC, which manages the ponds, launched a consultation in September after the Supreme Court ruled in April last year that the terms "women" and "sex" in the Equality Act 2010 referred to biological sex.

The CLC said it voted to keep the policy after 86% of the 38,000 responses to the consultation were in favour.

Feedback from regular pond-users supported the same approach, the CLC added.

The corporation said improvements had also been agreed to add more private cubicles as part of upgrades to toilet and shower facilities at the ponds.

The decision means the women's and men's ponds would not be classed as single‑sex spaces under the Equality Act.

Guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), published last month, says single‑sex services should be based on biological sex.

In March, the charity Sex Matters won permission at the Court of Appeal to continue a legal challenge over the ponds' access policy, arguing that allowing trans people to use facilities in line with their gender identity amounted to sex discrimination.

The CLC withdrew its Gender Identity Policy following the Supreme Court ruling.

During Thursday's committee hearing, session member Steve Goodman opposed the policy, calling it "unacceptable".

"If we're going to have a ladies' pond, it should be for biological women only," he said.

"We shouldn't have a situation where any biological male can go up to the gate and say 'I've decided I'm starting a process of wanting to be a trans woman and therefore can I swim in the ladies' pond'. That's unacceptable."

Katie Stewart, the CLC's executive director for environment, said staff would rely on "common sense" in applying the policy.

"If someone comes in and very apparently is a man trying to use the women's pond, we will trust our staff's judgment," she said.

She added the policy should be applied sensitively and that staff would not be expected to carry out physical checks or request identification.

Policy chairman Chris Hayward added: "Although our consultation was never a referendum, the message from regular swimmers and the wider community was clear – people want these ponds to remain safe, respectful and inclusive."

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