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Transgender women can continue to use Hampstead Heath’s ladies’ pond after a High Court challenge was thrown out.
Under current rules, trans women, who were born male but now identify as female, are allowed to use Kenwood Ladies’ Pond.
However, gender-critical campaigners sued the City of London Corporation, which operates the bathing site, in an attempt to stop biological men from using it.
Sex Matters, the women’s rights campaign group, took legal action against the City of London, claiming that allowing trans women to use the pond is sex discrimination.
On Thursday morning the High Court ruled that the charity’s case cannot proceed.
In a ruling dismissing the legal action, Mrs Justice Lieven said that the “appropriate forum” for the claim was a County Court, rather than the High Court.
She said the case should be brought by an individual, instead of a group, who claims that they have been discriminated against as a result of the trans policy.
The decision will result in renewed calls for Bridget Phillipson, the Women and Equalities Minister, to publish trans guidance which was drawn up after the Supreme Court judgment. It would force businesses and public bodies to protect women-only spaces, but Labour is yet to release it.
In its legal case, Sex Matters claimed that the City of London should no longer allow trans women to use the pond because the Supreme Court ruling “made clear that such an approach to single-sex service provision is based on a misunderstanding of the law”.