I am a middle aged woman who lives in Central London and likes swimming outdoors. As it happens I normally go to the Tooting Lido - indeed I am a member. Hampstead is just as close, but Tooting is on a bus route.
I don't want to be in a communal changing room with people with male bodies. Tooting has a communal changing room/shower block, with lots of young girls running in and out. Brockwell and the Serpentine also do, as does the Queen Mother Sports Centre in Victoria. .
I am genuinely concerned that the proposed policy, especially if taken as a prescedent, would reduce the number of girls and women accessing this type of facility. Sports facilities, especially those that appeal to girls and women are very limited in Central London. It would be wrong and disproportionate if, for the sake of a few - who can access the mixed pond in Hamstead without problem - a number of others were discouraged. It is worth noting that neighbouring Westminster has the highest rate of childhood obesity in the Country. There is a lot at stake here.
Going back not too many years Brockwell Lido had some major problems with its male changing room to the extent that mothers would not let their preteen sons in there alone during quiet mid-week times. Changing rooms have been reconfiguated and I dont think there is a problem now. But it is a problem that happens, and concerns by users need to be taken on board.
Sorry if that makes me, and many others, TERFs. At what point did we become a country where people are not allowed legitimate views without being insulted.