Why on earth don’t people check their facts? The Evening Standard journalist Mira Bar-Hillel (Letters, 15 July, page 34) gets the wrong end of the stick on at least three counts when she comments on CABE’s recent open design review.

The event was not “by invitation only”. It was publicised as part of Architecture Week and open to the public. Sixty-four out of 124 attendees requested a ticket having seen the publicity. I can only apologise if we also sent some invites out ourselves!

The people that came and stayed to the end (all bar seven) and gave some positive feedback. And it seems a bit selective of Mira to rely on witnesses who admitted they had a partial and limited view of the whole event.

Lastly, just for the record, the select committee report came out in January, not March. That was the date of the government's response, which actually said that the design review was not analogous to a local authority planning committee, and that opening it up completely could confuse the two, restrict the free and frank exchange of expert opinion, and diminish its effectiveness.

Still, why let a few facts get in the way of what you want to say?

Postscript

Matt Bell, director of policy and communications, CABE

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