Free-pitching has plagued the industry for 15 years

This is spooky! Your news story about free-pitching being ruled out for Olympic identity selection (DW 1 December) brought feelings of dejá vu.

More than 15 years ago I was a founder member and chairman of the Manchester Design Community (now the Liverpool and Manchester Design Initiative, www.designinit.org.uk), which was established as a reaction by local design groups to the design procurement processes of The Manchester Olympic Bid Committee.

I now read the Olympic Games organisers have ditched their controversial approach to free-pitching.

We don’t seem to have come far in 15 years, do we?

Geoff Gradwell FCSD, Director, Gradwell Corporate Design, Preston, PR2 1ZS

PS Have we now given over to spelling words ending ‘ize’ with ‘ise’? Has Bill Gates taken over? See ‘organisers’ throughout the Design Week article… have we given up on English?

English spellings are invariably with an ‘S’, hence organisers. The Americans, on the other hand, favour a ‘Z’ – Ed