East Staffordshire borough councillor Dennis Heptonstall is to quit his post, after calls by the Burton Mail for him to resign.

He has decided not to stand in the May elections.

The paper called for the councillor to resign, along with colleague Penny Perry, after almost 4,000 readers said they should quit in a poll run by the Mail.

The poll was set up after the officials abandoned their civic duties for 10 weeks in 2001 to take a camper van tour of Europe without their respective families. At that time he was council leader and she was his deputy.

On their return they resumed their roles as councillors, taking up low profile back-bench positions – before being reunited on the county council’s powerful new health scrutiny committee.

Editor Paul Hazeldine said he felt sure the paper had influenced the councillor’s decision not to stand in the May elections.

He said: “Obviously the public wanted him out and the paper took up the cause. We see this as a moral victory.”

Councillor Heptonstall’s decision spells the end of a long and mostly successful political career with East Staffordshire Borough Council, of which he was leader for 11 years.

However he will remain a member of Staffordshire County Council, with elections there not due until 2005.

When the Mail contacted him for a comment, he told the paper: “I have no comment. You will no doubt print what you like.”

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