MILLIONAIRE councillor Pop Jolley has teamed up with Maxey Grounds & Co and a property firm owned by consultant Peter Humphrey to build 43 homes on a five acre field.

The �7.5 million development – which Maxey Grounds & Co say should net a 15 per cent profit- will include some affordable homes and allotments. Ten affordable homes are proposed.

The site – worth an estimated �500,000 with planning consent- is off Hutchinson Close and School Lane, Manea, and plans- plus a 38 page ‘viability assessment’ by Maxey Grounds & Co- have been submitted to Fenland District Council.

Maxey Grounds & Co said the value is well the normal development land value but at �100,000 per acre is about right given the low density.

The application is in the name of Portman Developments Ltd whose sole director is given as Peter Humphrey of Wheatley Bank, Walsoken: company secretary is Kim Humphrey.

Robin Briscoe of Peter Humphrey Associates of Wisbech is the agent but in a footnote to the application under certificate of ownership Cllr Jolley of Darcey Lodge, School Lane, Manea, is shown as the owner of the land.

Cllr Jolley, a Cabinet member of Fenland Council, lists construction, land purchase and development on his disclosure of interests attached to Manea Parish Council of which he is a member.

Cllr Jolley’s holdings include Poplars Farm, Manea, land and house at School Lane and 60 acres west of Station Road.

Earlier this year he served a four month suspension from the parish council following a complaint that he “failed to declare a personal and prejudicial interest”.

The allegation centred on pre application discussions for the development which is now before Fenland planners.

However such is Cllr Jolley’s popularity that when Councillor Mark Archer argued that his actions had brought the parish council into disrepute the clerk reported that “no other member shared this opinion”.