Examination of Witness (Questions 140-144)
1 NOVEMBER 2004
MS MIRA
BAR-HILLEL
Q140 Chairman: Is it not possible to
get people involved who are commercially active, in such a way
that you put any interests they have got up front and available
for public knowledge and cut out the conflicts that way?
Ms Bar-Hillel: Yes, of course.
It is a combination of the openness and the composition of a panel
which will dictate who sits on every plan that comes before CABE.
If those parameters are adhered to, and, I have to insist, they
have to be adhered to because CABE has got all kinds of guidelines
and proposals, and so on, unfortunately nobody polices whether
they actually implement them. The CABE-English Heritage joint
paper on tall buildings is only a year old and already has been
more noted in the breach than in the implementation. Neither organisation
actually abides by its own rules on tall buildings, notably CABE
in the case of Croydon, when it approved an outline application,
having said itself that outline applications with tall buildings
should not be entertained. There are serious problems here. The
biggest issue with CABE is, its intentions are faultless but then
we all know about good intentions.
Q141 Andrew Bennett: This question about
vested interests, is not part of the problem your future interests?
I was very worried when you suggested students, because if students
give the thumbs up to a particular scheme is not that a very good
job application for them?
Ms Bar-Hillel: Knowing developers
as I do, I think probably not.
Q142 Andrew Bennett: You are very keen
to have openness in an organisation, but actually is it not a
gift to the media at the present moment that you can dig round
and chase up the stories and get stuck into the papers, whereas
if it were open it would be pretty boring and would not actually
appear in the papers at all?
Ms Bar-Hillel: You are assuming
that media interest is a bad thing. I have to say, I think otherwise.
I think media interest, like daylight, is a very hygienic part
of the public process.
Q143 Andrew Bennett: Is there not more
interest because it is secret and if it were all open there would
not be as much interest?
Ms Bar-Hillel: It would be only
relevant interest. If I wanted to know who was on the design review
panel which assessed a particular scheme that was interesting
to me, either for personal reasons or because a member of the
public drew my attention to it, I would not be able to find out.
I do not think that is right. I do not think that is democratic.
Q144 Andrew Bennett: Are you sure you
would not be able to find out, as a good journalist?
Ms Bar-Hillel: I assure you, no,
I would not be able to find out, because, for some mysterious
reason, CABE are not going out of their way to be helpful to me
at the moment. It should not be up to them, it should be open
to the public. The media actually is not all that interested,
I have to tell you, really they are not, including my own. I find
it very, very difficult to get stories on this kind of subject
into my own paper, and it is not for want of trying.
Chairman: We may have helped a bit with
that this afternoon anyway. Thank you very much for coming.
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