6 London councils to ignore EHRC guidance

Two questions for people with more knowledge of local councils:

1. Do local councils rely on commercial insurance companies to underwrite their activities, with policies that stipulate lawful action as a condition of cover?
2. Can wayward councillors be recalled and booted out of office by constituents?

If yes, those are potential routes to shifting the dial.

The parents of young women (who don’t want to use women’s toilets) also are vocal about mixed sex toilet designs, as they don’t want their daughters using the men’s. Campbell, Maugham, Hale.

This is a typical result (this one from a schoolgirl who campaigned for ‘gender neutral’ toilets):

‘The gender-neutral bathrooms are both horrible and amazing. I am so glad we have them, but they are disgusting,
mostly because of the way students treat them. The issue mainly comes from how small and how few they are, and
it’s not uncommon that the four small bathrooms are filled with sex, drugs or vaping. We need to address these
problems, or the gender-neutral bathrooms will continue to be the most disgusting in the school….I consider everything in the third floor bathroom a biohazard. Almost every time I make the mistake of going in, I leave trying to purge my mind of the horrors I just witnessed. Whether it is people having sex, poop smeared on the walls, or the toilet being clogged with an entire roll of toilet paper, horrible things have happened in that bathroom.’

This is the typical response from the teacher trying to safeguard: ‘It’s not great because you’ve got a private space that’s publicly accessible and difficult for school staff to monitor.’

The girl’s solution was to have more gender neutral toilets to spread the sex and drugs and misuse out so she was more likely to find a clean one.

I have got many examples of ‘gender neutral’ designs going wrong. Schools have been the guinea pigs (because they are exempt from certain legislation) and pupils, especially girls and medically vulnerable, have paid the price. Let’s learn from where things have gone wrong for schools and not repeat the same mistakes.

If anyone from the above councils wants to chat about toilet design and safety, please ask me.

p.s. If people think schools are special cases, they are not. I have the evidence for that too.

It’s because many men calling themselves “non binary” are essentially TIMs and want into women’s spaces. The female NBs generally want everything to be mixed sex or often they want unisex single facilities where they don’t have to see anyone at all.

Starts off that they are worried about trans people, and all of a sudden it now includes non-binary etc.

I've emailed the two councillors of my ward. I'll post a redacted version of their response when I get it.

The open letter just doesn't acknowledge women at all. I'm sad that we aren't a priority.

(I mean, I'll redact which ward I'm in! Due to population density, it's about three streets wide haha)

Exactly.

The actual letter confirms two things.

It is just hot air

The signatories are very, very stupid.

The Scottish government have been forced to change their policy. This disrespect for the rule of law can’t just be allowed to stand.

Their request:

1. Confirm that the EHRC Code of Practice cannot be interpreted to exclude Trans+people from services and must be used to create inclusive services;
2. Introduce legislation which protects the rights of Trans+ people, ensuring that they are able to participate fully in public life and access services safely, with privacy, and with dignity;
3. Create an equalities framework that protects trans people’s safety, dignity and humanity.

I think this is all already covered by the Equality Act and the Guidance, at least so far as it relates to people with the PC of Gender Reassignment. The only gripe the council seems to have is that the legislation also protects sex based rights.

However, as an aside it's the concept of 'Trans+' that has led as to where we are now, because it makes the concept of 'trans' meaningless.

I certainly wouldn't trust these people to manage my bin collections.

Let's be clear. The Times headline is misleading. It is not the guidance they are ignoring, it is the LAW. Law that has been in place for many years and has not changed,

Having read the full text of the letter I’m not sure Ellie Cumbo is right. I don’t think the letter does contain any admission that the law will have to be observed by the six councils (assuming the letter actually reflects the views of the various majority groups on each council).

I do agree with her that it’s likely to be posturing. But these posers are shit-for-brains activist London councillors after all.

Thank you!

That's Lewisham Council's news article about the letter. All the councils seem to have published the same. It has lots of quotes from the letter but no link to the letter itself.

Ah that wasn't the full letter.

This is:

https://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2026-08/Joint%20letter%20to%20Minister%20for%20Women%20and%20Equalities%2005.08.26.pdf

I think yetanotherusernameagain shared it at 07.54 if you check that link

Has anyone found the actual 'open letter'? All I'm seeing are articles and statements about the letter.

Public sector employees who make these decisions and bring legal proceedings on their employers' heads should be made to shoulder the costs of the fines. They know full well they are breaking the law but are also operating in the knowledge that it's the taxpayer who will pick up the legal bill and fine. It's disgusting.

In the actual statements by each of these councils is a grudging admission they'll have to comply with the law.

So they are cynically misleading their trans constituents?

"Bristol city council said services could admit people according to their gender identity, meaning trans women could be allowed into women’s services. However, it said any service operating in that way must not be described as female-only and should instead be labelled “single-gender” or “trans-inclusive”"

So a round about way of saying that all their facilities are now mixed sex.

Have they done an impact assessment? Do they think all their facilities meet standards of the relevant building code? If they have done this and come to the conclusion that it is all legal, why not just call them mixed sex?

My most immediate question would be whether their employees have facilities that comply with H&S standards.

And then I would be wondering which other laws they are breaking.

It is a bit of an odd one this. Whilst local councillors can pass motions and order the Council employees to do xyz. The CEO and the senior management team have to take legal advice and if found that xyz is unlawful can refuse to implement xyz.

If the CEO follows xyz then he and his employees will be in the firing line.

Did the CEO’s authorise this stupid letter.

Very strange.

Write to them and be sure to copy in everyone else you can think of. I'd go for local MP, police commissioner and local newspaper. Those people won't have to act, but we need to make it as hard as possible for the council to pretend they never received the correspondence.

https://x.com/i/status/2085281092366475399

Some useful commentary from Ellie Cumbo (who used to be a Southwark councillor)

This system sounds ideal.

Yes! It feels a very outdated system in many way. Local democracy doesn't matter as much as effective social care or a functioning pot hole repair service. Tier 1 local authorities are responsible for too many things and have too big an impact on ppls lives to let so many ppl without a clue have do much power. The amount of times I've seen local council officers patiently explain what is legally allowed and what isn't only to get a big grand standing response in reply, ignoring the legalities.

I also think councillors should be apolitical. Too many cllrs elected just because they are a member of a certain party and the ward would elect a donkey if it wore the right rosette!

Yes I think i will write to them but I have little hope that it will make a difference. They just dismiss people who object as bigots.