Sunderland City Council election, 2002

The 2002 Sunderland Council election took place on 2 May 2002 to elect members of Sunderland Metropolitan Borough Council in Tyne and Wear, England. One third of the council was up for election and the Labour party stayed in overall control of the council.^[1]

After the election, the composition of the council was

• Labour 62
• Conservative 11
• Liberal Democrat 1
• Liberal 1^[2]

Campaign

66 candidates contested the 25 seats that were available in the election.^[3] The election was said to be the "first time in recent memory" that every seat that was up for election was contested.^[3] Candidates included 6 from the British National Party and an independent, former Conservative group leader Ron Smith, in Pallion ward.^[3]

Postal voting in the election was up on the 2001 general election with 9,770 postal votes returned by 1 May, an increase of 3,500 on the general election.^[4]

Election result

The results saw Labour easily holding control of the council after losing just 1 seat in the election.^[5] The only change came in St Peter's ward with the Conservatives gaining the seat from Labour.^[6] Meanwhile none of the British National Party candidates managed to win a seat,^[7] but the party did come second in 2 wards, Town End Farm and Southwick.^[6] The results meant Labour held 62 seats after the election, compared to 11 for the Conservatives.^[8]

Following the election the Labour leader of the council for the previous 3 years, Colin Anderson, was defeated in a leadership election by Bob Symonds.^[9]

Sunderland Local Election Result 2002[10][11]
Party		Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
	Labour	21	0	1	-1	84.0	56.9	27,882
	Conservative	3	1	0	+1	12.0	31.9	15,629
	Liberal Democrat	1	0	0	0	4.0	7.9	3,852
	BNP	0	0	0	0	0	3.1	1,537
	Independent	0	0	0	0	0	0.2	121

Ward results

Castletown[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Thomas Foster	1,248	86.2
	Conservative	Gwennyth Gibson	199	13.8
Majority			1,049	72.5
Turnout			1,447
	Labour hold		Swing

Central[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	James Hollern	949	59.3
	Liberal Democrat	John Jackson	337	21.1
	Conservative	Dorreen Storey	314	19.6
Majority			612	38.3
Turnout			1,600
	Labour hold		Swing

Colliery[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Maureen Ambrose	1,070	62.2
	Conservative	John Brown	651	37.8
Majority			419	24.3
Turnout			1,721
	Labour hold		Swing

Eppleton[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Elizabeth Bell	1,239	67.0
	Conservative	David Wilson	611	33.0
Majority			628	33.9
Turnout			1,850
	Labour hold		Swing

Fulwell[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Norman Bohill	1,863	66.5
	Labour	Gary Hollern	609	21.7
	Liberal Democrat	Amie Leung	181	6.5
	BNP	Joseph Dobbie	148	5.3
Majority			1,254	44.8
Turnout			2,801
	Conservative hold		Swing

Grindon[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	James Scott	902	67.0
	Conservative	David Francis	445	33.0
Majority			457	33.9
Turnout			1,347
	Labour hold		Swing

Hendon[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Thomas Martin	1,092	45.0
	Conservative	Kathryn Chamberlin	992	40.9
	BNP	David Guynan	340	14.0
Majority			100	4.1
Turnout			2,424
	Labour hold		Swing

Hetton[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Richard Tate	1,186	75.1
	Conservative	Olwyn Bird	394	24.9
Majority			792	50.1
Turnout			1,580
	Labour hold		Swing

Houghton[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Joseph Lawson	1,341	80.3
	Conservative	Gordon Newton	330	19.7
Majority			1,011	60.5
Turnout			1,671
	Labour hold		Swing

Pallion[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Brian Dodds	1,148	44.4
	Conservative	Stephen Daughton	1,032	39.9
	Liberal Democrat	Elizabeth Foreman	286	11.1
	Independent	Ronald Smith	121	4.7
Majority			116	4.5
Turnout			2,587
	Labour hold		Swing

Ryhope[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	David Wares	1,451	69.8
	Conservative	William Dunn	628	30.2
Majority			823	39.6
Turnout			2,079
	Labour hold		Swing

St Chad's[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Leslie Scott	1,433	58.2
	Conservative	Alistair Newton	1,030	41.8
Majority			403	16.4
Turnout			2,463
	Labour hold		Swing

St Michael's[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Margaret Forbes	1,923	66.9
	Labour	Phillip Gibson	950	33.1
Majority			973	33.9
Turnout			2,873
	Conservative hold		Swing

St Peter's[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Michael Arnott	1,047	39.4
	Labour	Christine Shattock	952	35.8
	Liberal Democrat	John Lennox	657	24.7
Majority			95	3.6
Turnout			2,656
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing

Shiney Row[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Kathryn Rolph	1,423	72.5
	Conservative	Marjorie Matthews	539	27.5
Majority			884	45.1
Turnout			1,962
	Labour hold		Swing

Silksworth[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Peter Gibson	1,623	72.2
	Conservative	Patricia Francis	484	21.5
	BNP	David Rogers	141	6.3
Majority			1,139	50.7
Turnout			2,248
	Labour hold		Swing

South Hylton[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Thomas Wright	898	68.4
	Conservative	Michael Dixon	415	31.6
Majority			483	36.8
Turnout			1,313
	Labour hold		Swing

Southwick[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Paul Stewart	933	62.9
	BNP	Alan Brettwood	292	19.7
	Liberal Democrat	Jane Walters	167	11.3
	Conservative	Alice Mclaren	92	6.2
Majority			641	43.2
Turnout			1,484
	Labour hold		Swing

Thorney Close[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Robert Kirby	1,011	67.1
	Conservative	Paula Wilkinson	260	17.3
	BNP	Joseph Dobbie	235	15.6
Majority			751	49.9
Turnout			1,506
	Labour hold		Swing

Thornholme[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrat	Mark Greenfield	1,113	56.6
	Labour	Leonard Lamb	594	30.2
	Conservative	Neville Chamberlin	260	13.2
Majority			519	26.4
Turnout			1,967
	Liberal Democrat hold		Swing

Town End Farm[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Richard Bell	831	61.1
	BNP	John Martin	381	28.0
	Conservative	Gillian Connor	149	10.9
Majority			450	33.1
Turnout			1,361
	Labour hold		Swing

Washington East[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Derek Sleightholme	1,463	62.1
	Conservative	Jacqueline Atkinson	537	22.8
	Liberal Democrat	Avril Kitching	357	15.1
Majority			926	39.3
Turnout			2,357
	Labour hold		Swing

Washington North[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	James Walker	1,136	79.5
	Conservative	Kathleen Irvine	293	20.5
Majority			843	59.0
Turnout			1,429
	Labour hold		Swing

Washington South[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Peter Young	1,325	49.8
	Conservative	Lee Martin	871	32.7
	Liberal Democrat	Owen Dumpleton	466	17.5
Majority			454	17.1
Turnout			2,662
	Labour hold		Swing

Washington West[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	William Stephenson	1,075	65.8
	Liberal Democrat	David Griffin	288	17.6
	Conservative	Justin Garrod	270	16.5
Majority			787	48.2
Turnout			1,633
	Labour hold		Swing

References

1. "Sunderland". BBC News Online. Retrieved 2010-12-22.
2. "Full results". Financial Times. 2002-05-04. p. 7.
3. Unwin, Bruce (2002-04-08). "Line-up lists closed for council seats campaigners". The Northern Echo. p. 6.
4. "Postal voting soars in BNP candidate areas". The Times. 2002-05-01. p. 10.
5. Summers, Deborah (2002-05-03). "BNP fails to make impact in English council polls". The Herald. p. 1.
6. "No Headline". The Northern Echo. 2002-05-03. Retrieved 2010-12-22.
7. "Still no sign of recovery for the Tories". The Times. 2002-05-03. p. 1.
8. Tapping, Colin (2002-05-04). "Labour suffers disappointment in triplicate at mayoral elections". The Northern Echo. p. 9.
9. Foster, Sarah (2002-05-07). "Labour group opts for new man". The Northern Echo. p. 6.
10. "Sunderland". Local Elections Archive Project. Retrieved 2010-12-22.
11. "Election results; Local Election". The Times. 2002-05-04. p. 16.