2002 Hartlepool Borough Council election

Elections to Hartlepool Borough Council in the ceremonial county of County Durham in England were held on 2 May 2002. One third of the council was up for election and the council stayed under no overall control.[1] At the same time an election took place for a directly elected mayor, which was won by independent candidate Stuart Drummond.[2]

Mayoral election

Campaign

Five candidates stood in the election for mayor, one each from the three main political parties and two independents. The Labour candidate for mayor was Leo Gillen, a local businessman who had led the campaign in favour of introducing a directly elected mayor.[3] The Liberal Democrats selected the leader of the council since 2000, Arthur Preece, as their candidate for mayor, while the Conservatives chose councillor Stephen Close.[4] The first independent candidate, Stuart Drummond, was better known as H'Angus the Monkey the official mascot for the local football team Hartlepool United F.C.[2][5] The other independent candidate was Ian Cameron, another local businessman.[6]

Drummond campaigned on a pledge to give free bananas to all school pupils under 11 in Hartlepool.[5] He received backing from the football club who paid his deposit[7] and he promised that he would attempt to keep a local sports centre open, improve sporting facilities, tackle crime[8] and reduce the number of councillors.[5] His candidacy began as something of a joke but became more serious as he attracted support during the campaign.[9]

A supplementary voting system was used in the mayoral election with second preferences being used if no candidate received over half of the vote.[10] A local bookmaker initially made Drummond a 100–1 outsider in the mayoral election but soon had to suspend betting after receiving a lot of bets from local people.[11]

Results

Stuart Drummond won the mayoral election defeating the Labour candidate Leo Gillen on second preferences.[2] Drummond said that his victory was due to disillusionment with local politicians and said that he was serious about doing a good job for Hartlepool as mayor.[12] Local Member of Parliament Peter Mandelson praised Drummond on his victory and described him as being "very committed".[13] However other political opponents described the results as having made Hartlepool "a laughing stock".[12]

Hartlepool Mayoral Election 2 May 2002 [14]
Party Candidate 1st round 2nd round
 First round votes  Transfer votes 
Total Of round Transfers Total Of round
Independent Stuart Drummond 5,696 29.1% 1,699 7,395 52.2%
​​
Labour Leo Gillen 5,438 27.8% 1,324 6,762 47.8%
​​
Independent Ian Cameron 5,174 26.5%
​​
Liberal Democrats Arthur Preece 1,675 8.6%
​​
Conservative Stephen Close 1,561 8.0%
​​
Independent win

Council election

In the previous election in 2000 the Labour party had lost control of the council which since then had been run by a coalition between the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives.[15] Elections took place in 16 of the 17 wards with only Greatham ward not holding an election.[10] Most attention was on the mayoral election but there was a large swing of 14.2% to Labour in the council election. However they were only able to gain one seat in Seaton ward from the Conservatives.[16]

After the election, the composition of the council was

Summary of results
Hartlepool Local Election Result 2002
Party Seats Gains Losses Net gain/loss Seats % Votes % Votes +/−
  Labour 9 +1 56.3 49.4 9,550
  Liberal Democrats 3 -1 18.8 24.7 4,768
  Conservative 2 -1 12.5 18.3 3,529
  Independent 2 +1 12.5 4.8 934
  UKIP 0 0 0 2.8 540

Ward results
Brinkburn[17]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Democrats John Lauderdale 698 61.5
Labour Alison Lilley 437 38.5
Majority 262 23.0
Turnout 1,135
Brus[17]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Denis Waller 559 62.9
Conservative Christopher McKenna 205 23.1
Independent Mary Power 125 14.1
Majority 354 39.8
Turnout 889
Dyke House[17]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Sandra Fenwick 640 68.8
Liberal Democrats Lynn Thompson 290 31.2
Majority 350 37.6
Turnout 930
Elwick[17]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Independent Stan Kaiser 288 48.1
Conservative Hilary Thompson 214 35.7
Labour Ron Watts 97 16.2
Majority 74 12.4
Turnout 599
Fens[17]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Democrats Patricia Rayner 865 62.1
Labour George English 527 37.9
Majority 338 24.2
Turnout 1,392
Grange[17]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Douglas Ferriday 911 58.0
Labour Alan Walker 661 42.0
Majority 250 16.0
Turnout 1,572
Hart[17]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Democrats Thomas Burey 762 57.9
Labour Alice Savage 555 42.1
Majority 207 15.8
Turnout 1,317
Jackson[17]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Carl Richardson 683 70.8
Liberal Democrats Sheila Bruce 282 29.2
Majority 401 41.6
Turnout 965
Owton[17]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Anthony Groom 504 70.1
Liberal Democrats Kenneth Fox 215 29.9
Majority 289 40.2
Turnout 719
Park[17]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative George Morris 970 52.4
Labour Stephen Belcher 882 47.6
Majority 88 4.8
Turnout 1,852
Rift House[17]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Iain Wright 725 50.3
Liberal Democrats Ronald Foreman 716 49.7
Majority 9 0.6
Turnout 1,441
Rossmere[17]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Michael Johnson 777 67.0
Liberal Democrats Howard Smith 286 24.7
UKIP David Pascoe 97 8.4
Majority 491 42.3
Turnout 1,160
St Hilda[17]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Independent Stephen Allison 521 38.1
Labour Patrick Price 484 35.4
Liberal Democrats Kevin Kelly 364 26.6
Majority 37 2.7
Turnout 1,369
Seaton[17]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Michael Turner 778 52.5
Conservative David Young 704 47.5
Majority 74 5.0
Turnout 1,482
Labour gain from Conservative Swing
Stranton[17]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Mary Fleet 415 58.9
Liberal Democrats Peter Whitham 290 41.1
Majority 225 17.8
Turnout 705
Throston[17]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Stephen Wallace 826 46.0
Conservative Robert Addison 525 29.3
UKIP Eric Wilson 443 24.7
Majority 301 16.7
Turnout 1,794

References
  1. "Hartlepool". BBC Online. Retrieved 3 May 2009.
  2. "Monkey mascot elected mayor". BBC Online. 3 May 2002. Retrieved 8 May 2009.
  3. "Council of despair for the elected mayor: Tony Blair's principal idea for reinvigorating local government is running out of steam in the face of establishment". Financial Times. 1 February 2002. p. 19.
  4. "Councillor's bid to be mayor". The Northern Echo. 19 March 2002. p. 6.
  5. Loughlin, Nick (4 April 2002). "Mayor candidate who really gives a monkey's". The Northern Echo. p. 1.
  6. Akbar, Arifa (2 May 2002). "POLITICS LOCAL ELECTIONS: Mascot may make a monkey out of bookies at the polls ; HARTLEPOOL". The Independent. p. 9.
  7. Innes, John (5 April 2002). "Monkey business in local election". The Scotsman. p. 11.
  8. Tighe, Chris (27 April 2002). "Hartlepool's monkey means business as he climbs up poll: Mayoral bid by football mascot raises serious issues". The Financial Times. p. 22.
  9. "Voters make a monkey of mainstream parties". The Financial Times. 3 May 2002. p. 7.
  10. Relton, Katie (19 April 2002). "World: Follow the rules for smooth election day". The Northern Echo. p. 6.
  11. Loughlin, Nick (24 April 2002). "Punters make a monkey of bookie". The Northern Echo. p. 1.
  12. Wright, Oliver (4 May 2002). "Monkey business turns serious for Hartlepool". The Times. p. 13.
  13. Hennessy, Patrick (3 May 2002). "Club mascot makes a monkey out of Tony Blair's mayor dream". Evening Standard. p. 8.
  14. "Local Elections in England: 2 May 2002" (PDF). House of Commons Library. 9 May 2002. Retrieved 16 January 2013.
  15. "No time to put a monkey on election result". The Northern Echo. 6 April 2002. p. 7.
  16. Tapping, Colin (4 May 2002). "Labour suffers disappointment in triplicate at mayoral elections". The Northern Echo. p. 9.
  17. "Local Council Elections: 2 May 2002". Andrew Teale. Archived from the original on 23 July 2009. Retrieved 3 May 2009.
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