Hugh Malyan will be resigning as the borough's political leader after five years at the helm, he revealed in a shock announcement last week.

Councillor Malyan, who plans to eventually relocate to the west country with his wife, insists he will remain as a ward councillor in Upper Norwood until the 2006 local elections.

Coun Malyan will stand down as council leader in February 2005, by which time the Croydon Labour group is expected to have elected a successor.

The 45-year-old father-of-two said: "It's been a tough, challenging, stimulating and in large parts enormously satisfying period.

"However, as in all walks of life, you reach a point where it is time to move on."

Coun Malyan's reign has been a particularly turbulent period in the authority's history. Three controversial issues during his time as leader were 2003's education funding crisis, outrage at the 27 per cent council tax increase during the last financial year and protest at draconian' parking proposals in 2002.

A local church-goer, amateur actor and long-standing Crystal Palace supporter, Coun Malyan has also overseen some positive changes to the town, such as major regeneration projects, which will leave his mark on the borough for years to come.