Judge blocks charity’s challenge over trans people’s use of Hampstead ponds single-sex facilities

A swimmer dives into the Ladies' pond on Hampstead Heath in London. Photograph: Sarah Lee/The Guardian

A legal challenge brought by a charity over transgender people’s access to single-sex facilities at swimming ponds in Hampstead Heath has failed at the high court.

Sex Matters, a UK-wide gender-critical campaign group, sought to take legal action against the City of London, which manages the bathing ponds in north London, arguing that allowing trans people to use the facilities for the gender with which they identified amounted to sex discrimination.