Nine o'clock on a Friday morning and the Creekside Environmental Centre in down-at-heel Deptford in south-east London is buzzing with activity. In a room normally set aside for teaching children about local wildlife, a group of architects, sustainability advisers, cost consultants, transport specialists and model makers are busy at impromptu workstations. With eight hours to go they are putting the finishing touches on a 10-year development plan for 53 sites sandwiching this mile-long tributary of the Thames. What's most surprising is that it has taken just four days to get to this stage using a new approach to collaborative planning - the charrette. If you're unfamiliar with this word you're not alone. According to Lynne Ceeney, associate director of sustainable communities at BRE, who is overseeing the exercise, it is another of those unhelpful phrases, such as sustainability or amenity. The best way to describe it is as a intensive collaborative planning exercise that brings people together and asks them to come up with a development plan for an area.
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