A row over a proposed ban on transgender women at a women’s swimming pond in Hampstead Heath is set to come to a head this weekend.

The Kenwood Ladies Pond on Hampstead Heath has been open to transgender women since 2010, when the City of London Corporation (CoLC) adopted a new gender identity policy.

The Kenwood Ladies Pond Association (KLPA), which has around 1,000 members, has been asked to update its the constitution around the word "woman" at its annual general meeting on March 3.

A KLPA member has submitted a resolution that the word woman is "interpreted literally and biologically so that only those born female in sex can use the pond".

The resolution adds that men who call themselves women, see themselves as women, claim to be women, identify as women, or wish to be women "are to be excluded".

KLPA co-chairs Beth Feresten and Pauline Latchem have now said that officers of the association believe that, if adopted, the proposals “would be unlawful” under the Equality Act 2010.

They told the Ham & High that they have a “duty to make that clear” to members before a vote on the proposal at the KLPA AGM on Sunday (March 3).

It comes after campaign group Women’s Rights Network, which supports the resolution, accused the association of having “consistently misrepresented the law”.

Network founder Heather Binning added that the KLPA has refused to acknowledge “women’s concerns about men accessing the Ladies Pond”.

She said: “The Equality Act and subsequent guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission makes it clear that single-sex spaces are lawful in a number of situations including changing rooms and swimming sessions.

“The committee claims to have taken legal advice on this, but is refusing to share that advice with members and at least one member of the management committee.”

The KLPA claims that it is the City of London, which manages Hampstead Heath, that controls who swims at the pond and not the association.

Co-chairs Feresten and Latchem said: “As a user group, we are not dismissing anyone’s views, as is evident from the fact that a resolution to exclude transgender women from membership is being put forward to members at the AGM.”