A Placecheck organised by Urban Vision North Staffordshire and the Urban Design Alliance (UDAL) in 2005 – long before the days of the Placecheck app – took an unusual approach. The participants divided into groups of around six for the walkabout.

Generally the groups are a mix of people; in this case there were a couple of mixed groups but also single-professional groups (the participants in this particular Placecheck were heavy on professionals, due to the involvement of UDAL) consisting of, respectively, engineers, building conservationists, landscape architects, architects and the local authority’s tourism team.

After the walkabout the teams convened for what was a very fruitful discussion. The notes of the event comment: ‘There was very little difference between the findings of the groups.’