Hartlepool Borough Council election, 2002

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	Total	First Round Votes  Transfer Votes
	Independent	Stuart Drummond	5,696	29.1%	1,699	7,395	​ ​
	Labour	Leo Gillen	5,438	27.8%	1,324	6,762	​ ​
	Independent	Ian Cameron	5,174	26.5%			​ ​
	Liberal Democrat	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

• Labour 23
• Liberal Democrat 12
• Conservative 8
• Independent 4^[1]

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 Democrat	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 Democrat	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 Democrat	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 Democrat	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 Democrat	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 Democrat	Sheila Bruce	282	29.2
Majority			401	41.6
Turnout			965

Owton[17]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Anthony Groom	504	70.1
	Liberal Democrat	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 Democrat	Ronald Foreman	716	49.7
Majority			9	0.6
Turnout			1,441

Rossmere[17]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Michael Johnson	777	67.0
	Liberal Democrat	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 Democrat	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 Democrat	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 2009-05-03.
2. "Monkey mascot elected mayor". BBC Online. 2002-05-03. Retrieved 2009-05-08.
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. 2002-02-01. p. 19.
4. "Councillor's bid to be mayor". The Northern Echo. 2002-03-19. p. 6.
5. Loughlin, Nick (2002-04-04). "Mayor candidate who really gives a monkey's". The Northern Echo. p. 1.
6. Akbar, Arifa (2002-05-02). "POLITICS LOCAL ELECTIONS: Mascot may make a monkey out of bookies at the polls ; HARTLEPOOL". The Independent. p. 9.
7. Innes, John (2002-04-05). "Monkey business in local election". The Scotsman. p. 11.
8. Tighe, Chris (2002-04-27). "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. 2002-05-03. p. 7.
10. Relton, Katie (2002-04-19). "World: Follow the rules for smooth election day". The Northern Echo. p. 6.
11. Loughlin, Nick (2002-04-24). "Punters make a monkey of bookie". The Northern Echo. p. 1.
12. Wright, Oliver (2002-05-04). "Monkey business turns serious for Hartlepool". The Times. p. 13.
13. Hennessy, Patrick (2002-05-03). "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. 2002-04-06. p. 7.
16. Tapping, Colin (2002-05-04). "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 2009-07-23. Retrieved 2009-05-03.