Corporation officer Andrew Impey told a Hampstead Heath Consultative Committee meeting this week that the consultation has received thousands of responses with many more expected before it closes. He said as a result he anticipates it will take three or four weeks to analyse the feedback with a series of focus groups also planned. Mr Impey said he does not expect a final report on the future use of the ponds to go to the necessary Corporation committees until January.
The CLC said current arrangements had been in place for many years and follow its own gender identity policy adopted in 2019 following a public consultation and previous versions of the watchdog the Equality and Human Rights Commission's (EHRC) statutory code of practice. But after a Supreme Court ruling in April, which said the words woman and sex in the Equality Act 2010 refer to a biological woman and biological sex, both the CLC's gender identity policy and previous EHRC guidance have been withdrawn.
Adding a tad more biodiversity to London's wonderful and ecosystem of pesky pigeons and foxes, Hampstead Heath is currently borrowing five rare-bred Norfolk Horn and Oxford Down ewes. The sheep come courtesy of east London's Mudchute City Farm , one of Europe's biggest city farms, and you'll be able to see them grazing from 8am to 7pm until Monday September 15.