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
editCampaign
editFive 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
editStuart 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 | 1st round votesTransfer votes, 2nd round | |||||
| 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
editIn 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
edit| 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
edit| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal Democrats | John Lauderdale | 698 | 61.5 | ||
| Labour | Alison Lilley | 437 | 38.5 | ||
| Majority | 262 | 23.0 | |||
| Turnout | 1,135 | ||||
| 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 | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Sandra Fenwick | 640 | 68.8 | ||
| Liberal Democrats | Lynn Thompson | 290 | 31.2 | ||
| Majority | 350 | 37.6 | |||
| Turnout | 930 | ||||
| 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 | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal Democrats | Patricia Rayner | 865 | 62.1 | ||
| Labour | George English | 527 | 37.9 | ||
| Majority | 338 | 24.2 | |||
| Turnout | 1,392 | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | Douglas Ferriday | 911 | 58.0 | ||
| Labour | Alan Walker | 661 | 42.0 | ||
| Majority | 250 | 16.0 | |||
| Turnout | 1,572 | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal Democrats | Thomas Burey | 762 | 57.9 | ||
| Labour | Alice Savage | 555 | 42.1 | ||
| Majority | 207 | 15.8 | |||
| Turnout | 1,317 | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Carl Richardson | 683 | 70.8 | ||
| Liberal Democrats | Sheila Bruce | 282 | 29.2 | ||
| Majority | 401 | 41.6 | |||
| Turnout | 965 | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Anthony Groom | 504 | 70.1 | ||
| Liberal Democrats | Kenneth Fox | 215 | 29.9 | ||
| Majority | 289 | 40.2 | |||
| Turnout | 719 | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | George Morris | 970 | 52.4 | ||
| Labour | Stephen Belcher | 882 | 47.6 | ||
| Majority | 88 | 4.8 | |||
| Turnout | 1,852 | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Iain Wright | 725 | 50.3 | ||
| Liberal Democrats | Ronald Foreman | 716 | 49.7 | ||
| Majority | 9 | 0.6 | |||
| Turnout | 1,441 | ||||
| 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 | ||||
| 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 | ||||
| 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 | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Mary Fleet | 415 | 58.9 | ||
| Liberal Democrats | Peter Whitham | 290 | 41.1 | ||
| Majority | 225 | 17.8 | |||
| Turnout | 705 | ||||
| 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
edit- ^ 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.