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
Party		Candidate	Total	Of round	Transfers	Total	Of round	First round votes Transfer votes
	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
	Seats	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	0.0	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

^ ^a ^b "Hartlepool". BBC Online. Retrieved 3 May 2009.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Monkey mascot elected mayor". BBC Online. 3 May 2002. Retrieved 8 May 2009.
^ "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.
^ "Councillor's bid to be mayor". The Northern Echo. 19 March 2002. p. 6.
^ ^a ^b ^c Loughlin, Nick (4 April 2002). "Mayor candidate who really gives a monkey's". The Northern Echo. p. 1.
^ Akbar, Arifa (2 May 2002). "POLITICS LOCAL ELECTIONS: Mascot may make a monkey out of bookies at the polls ; HARTLEPOOL". The Independent. p. 9.
^ Innes, John (5 April 2002). "Monkey business in local election". The Scotsman. p. 11.
^ 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.
^ "Voters make a monkey of mainstream parties". The Financial Times. 3 May 2002. p. 7.
^ ^a ^b Relton, Katie (19 April 2002). "World: Follow the rules for smooth election day". The Northern Echo. p. 6.
^ Loughlin, Nick (24 April 2002). "Punters make a monkey of bookie". The Northern Echo. p. 1.
^ ^a ^b Wright, Oliver (4 May 2002). "Monkey business turns serious for Hartlepool". The Times. p. 13.
^ Hennessy, Patrick (3 May 2002). "Club mascot makes a monkey out of Tony Blair's mayor dream". Evening Standard. p. 8.
^ "Local Elections in England: 2 May 2002" (PDF). House of Commons Library. 9 May 2002. Retrieved 16 January 2013.
^ "No time to put a monkey on election result". The Northern Echo. 6 April 2002. p. 7.
^ Tapping, Colin (4 May 2002). "Labour suffers disappointment in triplicate at mayoral elections". The Northern Echo. p. 9.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p "Local Council Elections: 2 May 2002". Andrew Teale. Archived from the original on 23 July 2009. Retrieved 3 May 2009.

v t e Council elections in County Durham
Durham County Council	1889 1892 1895 1898 1901 1904 1907 1910 1913 1919 1922 1925 1928 1931 1934 1937 1946 1949 1952 1955 1958 1961 1964 1967 1970 1973 1977 1981 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001 2005 2008 2013 2017 2021
Darlington Borough Council	1973 1976 1979 1983 1987 1991 1995 1996 1998 1999 2003 2007 2011 2015 2019 2023
Hartlepool Borough Council	1973 1976 1979 1980 1982 1983 1984 1986 1987 1988 1990 1991 1992 1994 1995 1996 1998 1999 2000 2002 2003 2004 2006 2007 2008 2010 2011 2012 2014 2015 2016 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023
Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council	1973 1976 1979 1983 1987 1991 1995 1999 2003 2005 2007 2011 2015 2019 2023
Cleveland County Council	1973 1977 1981 1985 1989 1993 Abolished
Chester-le-Street District Council	1973 1976 1979 1983 1987 1991 1995 1999 2003 2007 Abolished
Durham City Council	1973 1976 1979 1983 1987 1991 1995 1999 2003 2007 Abolished
Derwentside District Council	1973 1976 1979 1983 1987 1991 1995 1999 2003 2007 Abolished
Easington District Council	1973 1976 1979 1983 1987 1991 1995 1999 2003 2007 Abolished
Sedgefield Borough Council	1973 1976 1979 1983 1987 1991 1995 1999 2003 2007 Abolished
Teesdale District Council	1973 1976 1979 1983 1987 1991 1995 1999 2003 2007 Abolished
Wear Valley District Council	1973 1976 1979 1983 1987 1991 1995 1999 2003 2007 Abolished
Tees Valley Mayor	2017 2021
See also: Wards Boundary changes

v t e (2001 ←) 2002 United Kingdom local elections (→ 2003)
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Unitary authorities	Blackburn with Darwen Bristol Derby Halton Hartlepool Kingston upon Hull Milton Keynes Peterborough Portsmouth Reading Slough Southampton Southend-on-Sea Stoke-on-Trent Swindon Thurrock Warrington Wokingham
District councils (England)	Adur Amber Valley Barrow-in-Furness Basildon Basingstoke and Deane Bassetlaw Bedford Brentwood Broadland Broxbourne Burnley Cambridge Cannock Chase Carlisle Cheltenham Cherwell Chester Chorley Colchester Congleton Craven Crawley Crewe and Nantwich Daventry Eastbourne Eastleigh Ellesmere Port and Neston Elmbridge Epping Forest Exeter Fareham Gloucester Gosport Great Yarmouth Harlow Harrogate Hart Hastings Havant Hertsmere Huntingdonshire Hyndburn Ipswich Lincoln Macclesfield Maidstone Mole Valley Newcastle-under-Lyme North Hertfordshire Norwich Nuneaton and Bedworth Oxford Pendle Penwith Preston Purbeck Redditch Reigate and Banstead Rochford Rossendale Rugby Runnymede Rushmoor Shrewsbury and Atcham South Bedfordshire South Cambridgeshire South Lakeland St Albans Stevenage Stratford-on-Avon Stroud Swale Tamworth Tandridge Three Rivers Tunbridge Wells Watford Waveney Welwyn Hatfield West Lancashire West Lindsey West Oxfordshire Weymouth and Portland Winchester Woking Worcester Worthing Wyre Forest

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