Swimmers launch court fight for winter dips

Swimmers today launched a High Court battle against "the nanny state" for the right to take early morning winter dips.

The Corporation of London has cut back on supervising lifeguards on winter mornings and refused permission for self-regulated swimming at the mixed pond on Hampstead Heath.

Today Michael Beloff, representing the Hampstead Heath Winter Swimming Club, said the Corporation had acted illegally. He argued that since 1871 the Corporation had "a general duty to afford access to the ponds".

"This is a case about the rights to take risks and the extent to which such a right has been curtailed by, to use a pithy but somewhat pejorative term, the nanny state," he told Mr Justice Stanley Burnton.

Mr Beloff said the Corporation should allow the swimming club to organise self-regulated sessions.

He claimed the Corporation was wrong to believe that unsupervised swimming would leave it open to prosecution under health and safety laws.

The Corporation had "erred in law" in judging the risks and failed to sufficiently consult the club before reaching its decision.

The Health and Safety at Work Act did not cover selfregulating swimmers who were acting on their own choice, he said.

The Health and Safety Executive had been given the chance to be represented in court but had declined.

However, the court heard that the HSE did not " formally" accept the club's claim that its members would be outside the relevant law.

The case continues.

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