A TOP planning lawyer based in York has been praised after advising three London boroughs on blockbuster development projects worth a total of more than £7.25 billion.

Jocelyn Denton, who heads up planning legal services at the Yorkshire office of Dickinson Dees at the Chocolate Works – the site of the former Terry’s factory – in Bishopthorpe Road. She has been working on the prestigious hat-trick of deals for the London Borough of Newham, the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and the London Borough of Lewisham.

Jocelyn, pictured, who lives in Malton, is acting for the London Borough of Newham on the £4 billion Stratford City project in East London, which involves the regeneration of 180 acres of land around the new International Passenger Station at Stratford. A major new metropolitan centre, including about 5,000 new homes, will be built as a result of the scheme and part of the site is to form the athlete’s village for the 2012 Games.

She has acted on the project since 2003 advising on all aspects of the planning applications for the scheme and being involved in the negotiation of complex planning agreements delivering benefits in the order of £120 million, plus affordable housing.

John Fannon, Newham’s planning officer, said: “The expert guidance we received from Dickinson Dees in respect of the Stratford Rail Lands has been invaluable to us in securing regeneration benefits for our local communities”

In acting for the Borough of Tower Hamlets on the Wood Wharf project, a £3 billion mixed-use redevelopment scheme on the Isle of Dogs next to Canary Wharf, Jocelyn advised on the negotiation and completion of a planning agreement to secure benefits valued at £153 million.

The scheme will provide offices, a hotel, 1,668 residential units, shops, restaurants, cafés and bars, leisure and community facilities and also includes the creation of a canal with bridge links.

And she advised on the £250 million Lewisham Gateway project – a mixed-use scheme for Lewisham town centre with new homes, leisure and community facilities and retail, office and hotel uses in addition to open space and infrastructure works.

Jocelyn said: “It has been a privilege to work on these high-value complex schemes which have such huge significance to the local authorities and the communities they serve.

“It has been challenging, but rewarding work and demonstrates the quality of the legal work that is being undertaken in the Yorkshire region.”