In Pascale Scheurer’s rant (19 November, page 31) about just about everything, it is sad to see that she has a narrow-minded and muddled attitude to public participation.

Not only does she think retired people have the wrong sort of views, she then complains that “hard-working” people do not have a say at all.

The truth is that meaningful consultation very often produces better schemes that go through more efficiently, while it is right that people should be able to stop terrible ones. Instead of sitting in a huff in her holiday barn, Scheurer should join enlightened architects and others to find more collaborative ways of building quality stuff. This could include encouraging developers to consider the value of valid public opinion.

Lucy Rogers

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