UDAL hopes its Placecheck initiative will show how to provide both. Urban design is more than a drawing board skill. There are too many examples where a developer, development agency or local authority has commissioned a master plan for a site, but where this has not led to the hoped-for high standards of design, or even to any development at all. This is often due to a failure to put in place the process for facilitating and delivering such development. The key to urban design lies neither with any single profession, not with professions alone.
Urban design is a process of collaboration, essential to reconcile conflicting interests.
The process depends on the people who manage budgets, make policy, write briefs, set standards and shape expectations. Such people include politicians, landowners, developers, business people, accountants, property agents, investors, civil servants, transport operators, educators, community groups, promoters of economic development and many more. Local Authorities are likely to be involved, but the initiative can come from anyone, in any organisation or sector. A Placecheck can be carried out for a place as small as a neighbourhood or town centre, or as large as a city or county. The setting might be urban, suburban or a village.