An officer at the City of London Corporation, which manages the Heath, said a final report is hoped to go before councillors in January.
A date for a final decision has not been finalised, with a high number of responses to a public consultation and potential legal proceedings complicating matters.
A corporation spokesperson said it is reviewing its access rules to ensure they remain “fair, lawful and respectful” following a Supreme Court ruling in April that clarified the legal definition of a woman under the Equality Act 2010 as referring to biological sex.
The court ruled that transgender women can be excluded from single sex spaces such as toilets, changing rooms, single-sex hospital wards and women’s refuges, if it is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim, such as ensuring safety and privacy.
The Heath has three ponds; the Highgate Men’s, the Kenwood Ladies’ and a mixed area. Currently the Corporation’s policies entitle trans men and trans women to use the pond of their choice.
Critics claim this breaches the definition in the legislation.
In October the Corporation launched a consultation, which runs until Tuesday (November 25), proposing six potential ways of operating the ponds. These include retaining the status quo, running the men’s and women’s ponds as “strictly single-sex facilities”, or operating them as trans-inclusive spaces other than the communal toilets and changing rooms.
Corporation officer Andrew Impey told a Hampstead Heath consultative committee meeting this week that there have been thousands of responses, with more expected.
With three or four weeks to analyse the feedback and a series of focus groups also planned, Mr Impey said he does not expect a final report until January.
Chair Alderman Greg Jones KC asked Mr Impey what the decision-making process is to be once the report has been published, though he was told this is yet to be confirmed.
Pushed by Common Councillor William Upton KC on the seeming delays to the final report, Mr Impey said he had always been clear it would be “highly unlikely” to meet a December deadline.
He added: “It would be foolish and dangerous of me to commit to January 15 not knowing how long it’s going to take to do that analysis, equally knowing we have to see the results of the six focus groups and how they relate to the data, the quantified data as well as the qualified data”.
Mr Impey said the consultation is “not a referendum”, adding: “It’s a proportion of that overall decision. It’s not the decision in totality.”
An update was also provided on legal proceedings brought by campaign group Sex Matters, which had filed for a judicial review of the Corporation’s admissions policy.
The group also argued that most of the consultation options are unlawful based on the Supreme Court ruling. The City of London Corporation has said it is ‘disappointed’ by Sex Matters pursuing legal action while the consultation and review are under way.
Alderman Jones told the committee a hearing has been set for December 17, when the judge is to both decide whether to allow the judicial review to proceed and consider written representations. He said a judgement is not expected on the day.
The Kenwood Ladies’ Pond Association, which has around 900 members, voted in 2024 to retain its “trans-inclusive membership policy”.
