I’m the founder of L Community, a women-only lesbian network. Earlier this year I applied to convert a disused council-controlled railway arch into a female-only lesbian venue. It met every legal test under Schedule 3 of the Equality Act 2010 – same-sex only, necessary for privacy and dignity, no mixed-sex access.
For the application, I identified specific arches that would be suitable, but made clear I would take any appropriate building if an arch was not possible. An arch is simply the lowest baseline in terms of cost and fit-out. Southwark Council still refused. They’ve given arches to LGBTQ+ groups, but in my case said they owned none – even though their own asset register lists hundreds. They also refused to carry out the Equality Impact Assessment they are legally required to do.
I’ve now exhausted their complaints process and have lawyers taking this forward. We are preparing for a judicial review of their decision, which would be the first case of its kind. If it succeeds, it will set a binding precedent forcing every local authority in the UK to apply Schedule 3 equally for women-only spaces.
Has anyone else here seen their own council refuse a lawful single-sex space? What happened, and how was it handled?