2002 Hartlepool Borough Council election

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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]

Contents

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]
PartyCandidate1st round2nd round
 First round votes  Transfer votes 
TotalOf roundTransfersTotalOf round
Independent Stuart Drummond 5,69629.1%1,6997,39552.2%
​​
Labour Leo Gillen5,43827.8%1,3246,76247.8%
​​
Independent Ian Cameron5,17426.5%
​​
Liberal Democrats Arthur Preece1,6758.6%
​​
Conservative Stephen Close1,5618.0%
​​
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
PartySeatsGainsLossesNet gain/lossSeats %Votes %Votes+/−
  Labour 9+156.349.49,550
  Liberal Democrats 3-118.824.74,768
  Conservative 2-112.518.33,529
  Independent 2+112.54.8934
  UKIP 0002.8540

Ward results

Brinkburn [17]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Liberal Democrats John Lauderdale69861.5
Labour Alison Lilley43738.5
Majority26223.0
Turnout 1,135
Brus [17]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Denis Waller55962.9
Conservative Christopher McKenna20523.1
Independent Mary Power12514.1
Majority35439.8
Turnout 889
Dyke House [17]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Sandra Fenwick64068.8
Liberal Democrats Lynn Thompson29031.2
Majority35037.6
Turnout 930
Elwick [17]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Independent Stan Kaiser28848.1
Conservative Hilary Thompson21435.7
Labour Ron Watts9716.2
Majority7412.4
Turnout 599
Fens [17]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Liberal Democrats Patricia Rayner86562.1
Labour George English52737.9
Majority33824.2
Turnout 1,392
Grange [17]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Conservative Douglas Ferriday91158.0
Labour Alan Walker66142.0
Majority25016.0
Turnout 1,572
Hart [17]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Liberal Democrats Thomas Burey76257.9
Labour Alice Savage55542.1
Majority20715.8
Turnout 1,317
Jackson [17]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Carl Richardson68370.8
Liberal Democrats Sheila Bruce28229.2
Majority40141.6
Turnout 965
Owton [17]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Anthony Groom50470.1
Liberal Democrats Kenneth Fox21529.9
Majority28940.2
Turnout 719
Park [17]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Conservative George Morris97052.4
Labour Stephen Belcher88247.6
Majority884.8
Turnout 1,852
Rift House [17]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Iain Wright72550.3
Liberal Democrats Ronald Foreman71649.7
Majority90.6
Turnout 1,441
Rossmere [17]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Michael Johnson77767.0
Liberal Democrats Howard Smith28624.7
UKIP David Pascoe978.4
Majority49142.3
Turnout 1,160
St Hilda [17]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Independent Stephen Allison52138.1
Labour Patrick Price48435.4
Liberal Democrats Kevin Kelly36426.6
Majority372.7
Turnout 1,369
Seaton [17]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Michael Turner77852.5
Conservative David Young70447.5
Majority745.0
Turnout 1,482
Labour gain from Conservative Swing
Stranton [17]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Mary Fleet41558.9
Liberal Democrats Peter Whitham29041.1
Majority22517.8
Turnout 705
Throston [17]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Stephen Wallace82646.0
Conservative Robert Addison52529.3
UKIP Eric Wilson44324.7
Majority30116.7
Turnout 1,794

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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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