Two Placechecks were carried out at the 2017 Civic Voice Convention in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, to introduce participants — from civic societies throughout the UK — to the method and the Placecheck web app. We admired the city’s impressive civic architecture; its distinctive townscape, with lanes leading from the main streets through arches to the areas beyond; and its paving that makes the most of local stone. This provided the context for thinking about priorities for regeneration.

It was agreed that the Placecheck web app worked well on walkabouts when some participants used it on their mobile phones or tablets to record views of likes, dislikes and things to work on, while others just looked and discussed.