To get the right answers
ask the right questions
Placechecklist
The checklist is in three parts:
A: Three basic questions
B: Fifteen more specific questions
C: 100+ more detailed questions
Start with whichever part seems to offer the right level of detail for you.
Part A: Three basic questions
1. What do you like about this place?
2. What do you dislike about it?
3. What needs to be improved?
Part B: Fifteen more specific questions
The checklist starts with three simple questions. These will get people thinking, and in some cases no more prompting will be needed. The last question, ‘What needs to be improved?’, will start people wondering what the options are.
The people
A. Who needs to be involved in changing the place for the better?
B. What resources are available locally to help people get involved?
C. What other methods might we use to develop our ideas about how to improve the place?
D. How can we make the most of other programmes and resources?
E. How can we raise our sights?
F. What other initiatives could improve the place?
The place
G. How can we make this a more special place?
H. How can we make this a greener place?
I. How can the streets and other public spaces be made safer and more pleasant for people on foot?
J. How else can public spaces be improved?
K. How the place be made more welcoming and easier for people to find their way around?
L. How can the place be made adaptable to change in the future?
M. How can better use be made of resources?
N. What can be done to make the most of public transport?
O. How can routes be made better connected?
The second part of the checklist sets out 15 more specific questions. The first six ask who needs to be involved in changing the place for the better, and how they can be involved in achieving that. The other nine questions focus on how people use the place and experience it. These questions may be enough to draw out the information that is required. If not, the next part provides more prompts.
Part C: 100+ more detailed questions
The longest part of the checklist goes more deeply into those 15 questions, listing a series of detailed questions (more than a hundred in all) under each one. This part is fairly comprehensive. It does not have to be gone through slavishly. The idea is to help you check that you have considered what issues might play a part in improving the place.