Hartlepool Democracy

Use these pages to find out information on past council and mayoral elections, Hartlepool borough council and councillors.

The Hartlepool borough is one of a small number in the United Kingdom to have a directly-elected mayor. This followed a referendum held in the borough in October 2001, and the first mayoral election was held in May 2002. The election became famous for being won by the mascot of Hartlepool United F.C., 'H'Angus the Monkey', with a majority of approximately 500 over the second-placed Labour Party candidate. The man inside the monkey costume, Stuart Drummond, has served as mayor as an independent since then, being re-elected in 2005 with a majority of over 10,000 and again in 2009 with a second round majority of 844.

Hartlepool is divided up in to seventeen wards, each of which elect councillors whom make up the borough council.

• Brus
• Burn Valley
• Dyke House
• Elwick
• Fens
• Foggy Furze
• Grange
• Greatham
• Hart
• Owton
• Park
• Rift House
• Rossmere
• Seaton
• St. Hilda
• Stranton
• Throston

Hartlepool is represented in the House of Commons by one Member of Parliament. The current MP for the Hartlepool constituency is Iain Wright of the Labour Party. He was first elected in a by-election on 30 September 2004 with a much-reduced majority following an 18% swing to the Liberal Democrats. He retained the seat with a greatly increased majority in the 2005 general election, and was re-elected in the 2010 general election, which saw a substantial drop in the Liberal Democratic and smaller drop in the Labour votes, but left Wright with half-again the votes accorded the second-place (Tory) candidate.