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 0.0 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. 1 2 "Hartlepool". BBC Online. Retrieved 3 May 2009.
  2. 1 2 3 "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. 1 2 3 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. 1 2 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. 1 2 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. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 "Local Council Elections: 2 May 2002". Andrew Teale. Archived from the original on 23 July 2009. Retrieved 3 May 2009.
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