A judge has ruled a legal challenge against rules allowing trans people to use the single-sex facilities at a London swimming pond cannot go ahead at the High Court.
Sex Matters took legal action against the City of London, which operates the men’s, ladies’ and mixed bathing ponds in Hampstead Heath, north London.
The group claimed the policy of allowing trans people to use the facilities for the gender with which they identify amounts to sex discrimination.
However, Mrs Justice Lieven dismissed the challenge saying the “appropriate forum” for the claim is the county court, as opposed to the High Court.
The judge said: “In my view the more appropriate person to bring this claim is an individual who says that they have been discriminated against by decisions about access to the ponds.”
The decision comes after the Supreme Court ruling last year, which said that a person’s legal sex is the one they were biologically assigned at birth.
Tom Cross KC, for the charity, said at a hearing in December that the rules treat an individual woman “less favourably” than an individual man, as they are at “greater risk of suffering the detriment of her privacy, dignity or safety being compromised.”
He said the City of London should change its policy after the Supreme Court ruling.
Hampstead Heath Ladies’ Pond has been at the centre of a row
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Following the ruling, the trans rights campaign group Trans+ Solidarity Alliance said: “It’s a shame that yet more public money has had to be spent defending against endless lawfare from a vocal, well-funded minority trying to force trans people out.
“Trans inclusion is the norm across the country, and this Government needs to act to ensure clarity and confidence for service providers to continue this without leaving them at risk of expensive litigation.”
Sex Matters Chief Executive Maya Forstater said: “The fight for women’s safety, privacy and dignity in single-sex spaces will continue.
“Just because this particular claim was ruled out on procedural grounds does not give any service provider the green light to allow trans-identifying males into female facilities.
“The City’s policy and its unwillingness to defend the lawfulness of that policy in court simply pushes the risk of harassment and the cost and difficulty of taking legal cases onto individual women and members of staff. This is deeply unjust.”
Hampstead Heath has about 30 ponds, which are fed by natural springs and attract more than 750,000 visits each year | GETTY
A consultation run by the City of London and published on Thursday found that nearly 90 per cent of respondents backed trans-inclusive access to the ponds.
More than 38,000 people took part in the consultation over a period of two months.
Of those, 84 per cent of respondents to the consultation had swam at the bathing ponds and 74 per cent lived in London, the City of London said.
Six options were considered for the Kenwood Ladies, Highgate Men’s and Hampstead mixed ponds, with 86 per cent of respondents supporting the existing trans-inclusive access arrangements.
Around 86 per cent also opposed introducing strict single sex access, 90 per cent of people rejected requiring trans swimmers to use separate changing rooms or have separate swimming sessions, while 66 per cent opposed making all ponds mixed sex.