A PROPERTY magnate with an “immense affinity to Bolton” received this year’s special achievement award.

Peter Emerson Jones OBE is the chairman of The Emerson Group, which owns the Middlebrook and has built more than 1,100 homes in Bolton over the last three decades.

Born in 1935, Mr Jones later qualified as a joiner and worked in his father’s joinery business.

In 1959 he formed his own company, P E Jones Contractors Limited, also known as Jones Homes, which started to build houses on small plots of land in Cheshire.

The housing sites began to grow during the 1960s and his involvement with housing in Bolton began in the 1980s, as well as at sites in Lytham, Glasgow and Sterling.

Over a 30 year period, Jones Homes has built on 12 sites in Bolton and sold 1,100 properties.

In addition, the commercial arm of the Emerson Group, Orbital Developments, has run the Middlebrook since its inception in 1996 which has gone on to employ more than 7,000 people.

Orbital also owns and manages Burnden Park and The Valley Developments, and board members sit on the Bolton Arena Board and the Bolton Economic Forum.

The Emerson Foundation has also sponsored the Mayor of Bolton’s charities for the past 12 years.

In addition, from 1975 onwards, Emerson International was formed with property portfolios in the US and Portugal being established.

Mr Jones won the North West Property Personality of the Year Award in 2009, and in 2013 he was awarded the OBE.

The Alderley Edge based Emerson Group employs more than 600 people, and Mr Jones’ two sons hold senior positions and his grandchildren are also now involved in the business.

Mr Jones said: “I was overwhelmed to win the award, it is very special.

“From starting in Bolton 30 years ago to working on the Middlebrook and seeing the way it has succeeded has been great.

“We said when I was elected to do the Middlebrook that we would try to create 3,000 jobs, and we now have 7,000 jobs which have been brought to Bolton, and I was very proud to be part of that.

Nick Fellows, managing director of Newsquest Lancashire, presented the award to Mr Jones.

In a speech he said: “Mr Jones is somebody with a fantastic reputation within the development and property sector and the impact that he has had on Bolton and its economic development has been significant.

“His various investments throughout the borough amount to hundreds of millions of pounds and thousands of jobs have been created as a result of the developments undertaken by his companies.”