In 2004, the City of London Corporation, which holds the Heath in trust since the abolition of the Greater London Council in 1986, tried to close the bathing ponds on the grounds that they were an unsustainable drain on their expenses and posed a health risk to swimmers. Swimmers challenged this and won a victory in the High Court. To defray costs, the Corporation introduced a charge for admission of £2 per session, £1 for concessions. There was some opposition to this on the grounds that swimming there had been free since at least the 1920s, and some ticket machines were vandalised.