We were interested to read your report of the failure of Fenland District Council to conduct an Equality Impact Assessment before submitting its plans for a new leisure centre at Whittlesey. Elisabeth Sennitt Clough is right to pursue a formal complaint as the move to a mixed-sex changing facility puts women and children at high risk of sexual assaults.
Fenland District Council must take responsibility for ensuring that all its customers are safe in the new facility and our research at the Women’s Rights Network shows that mixed-sex changing villages are not safe.
Women’s Rights Network is a grassroots campaign group working to protects the rights of women and girls to single-sex spaces and sports.
We launched the Red Flag Campaign in 2025 to highlight the dangers of mixed-sex changing rooms which are targeted by predatory males for easy access to women and children in a state of undress.
Our report, How Leisure Centres Enable Sexual Predators published in November 2025 ,found that in one year in 257 leisure centres in England and Wales there were 16 rapes, 80 sexual assaults and 65 acts of voyeurism across 257 leisure centres in England and Wales.
Former councillor raises stage 2 complaint over Whittlesey Leisure Centre redevelopment plans
Additional data from 81 leisure centres in Northern Ireland found 13 reported offences in one year.
The data point towards mixed-sex changing rooms as being more likely to be the scene of a changing room sex crime than single-sex facilities.
In Wales 88% and Northern Ireland 86% of sexual crimes in changing rooms took place in the mixed facilities.
Data from England were not as clear-cut as police data did not record whether the changing rooms were mixed-sex or single-sex, however we know from a previous report published in the Sunday Times in 2019 that these crimes are more likely in mixed facilities. Data from Scotland are currently being collated.
The Government’s Active Lives Strategy is to boost female participation in sport. One of the factors in encouraging women and girls to take part in fitness and sports activities is to ensure that they feel safe in the changing rooms.
Our report: Leisure Centres: Putting Women and Girls at Risk published in 2024, found that one-third of local authority swimming pools offer NO single-sex changing options for swimmers.
We know of hundreds of sex crimes committed in mixed-sex changing villages. We will be writing to Fenland District Council to make them aware of our research.
Mixed-sex changing villages are often described as ‘family-frendly’ but for the women and girls subject to voyeurism, illicit photograph, sexual assault or rape, these facilities are anything but ‘friendly’.
If you would like further information about our reports or the Red Flag Campaign please get in touch. We are happy for this letter to be published as is or used for the basis of another news item.
Kind regards
Jane Sullivan and Faye McGinty
Sports Group Coordinators
Women’s Rights Network
About Women’s Rights Network
The Women’s Rights Network (WRN) is a UK-wide organisation of women from England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland dedicated to protecting the human rights of women and girls. With around 60 groups and 3,000 members, WRN brings together women of all ages, backgrounds, religions, abilities, and sexual orientations. What unites us is a commitment to free speech and prioritising the sex-based needs of women and girls.
WRN provides safe spaces for discussion, support, and campaigning, focusing on evidence-based solutions to defend sex-based rights. Our core values include respect, solidarity, factual evidence, clarity in communication, recognition of biological sex, individual freedom, non-partisanship, and inclusivity of all faiths.
We promote human rights through research, public education, advocacy, and guidance on legislation and policy. WRN advances understanding of biological sex and equality under the law, and our membership benefits are reserved for women and girls to strengthen our mission.
At WRN, we stand together to ensure women and girls have safe spaces, legal protections, and a strong voice in society.
