The 2002 St Albans City and District Council election took place on 2 May 2002 to elect members of

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major ...

District Council in

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

, England. One third of the council was up for election and the council stayed under no overall control. After the election, the composition of the council was: * Conservative 21 * Liberal Democrats 20 * Labour 15 * Independent 1 *Vacant 1

Background

Before the election the Liberal Democrats were the largest party on the council with 23 councillors, compared to 19 for the Conservatives, 15 for Labour and there was 1 independent. 7 councillors stood down at the election, Liberal Democrats John Henchley, John Peters and Brian Roberts, Conservatives Richard Blossom, Patrick Johnston and Julian Turner, and Labour's David Enright. The Liberal Democrats targeted Labour held seats in Ashley and St Peter's, while Labour aimed to pick up a seat in Cunningham. As well as the 3 main political parties, voters could also vote for the No Candidate Deserves My Vote! party in some wards, which was standing in order to give voters the chance to register their

abstention Abstention is a term in election procedure for when a participant in a vote either does not go to vote (on election day) or, in parliamentary procedure, is present during the vote, but does not cast a ballot. Abstention must be contrasted with ...

at the polls.

Voting trial

A trial took place in Sopwell and Verulam

wards Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a priso ...

under which voters could vote either by internet,

phone A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into ele ...

, post or at the polling station using a touch screen system. The internet voting trial was funded by the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions as part of an attempt to get more people involved in elections. As a result of the trial one of the wards set the fastest declaration time at only 4 minutes after the close of polling. However turnout was actually down from 24.1% to 23.3% in Sopwell ward and down from 41.9% to 38.9% in Verulam ward compared to the last election in 2000.

Election result

The Conservatives gained 3 seats from the Liberal Democrats in

Colney Heath Colney Heath is a large village in Hertfordshire, England. The village became a civil parish in 1947 when the St. Peter Rural parish was split to form Colney Heath and London Colney. There is a converted windmill in the village. The civil paris ...

Harpenden Harpenden () is a town and civil parish in the City and District of St Albans in the county of Hertfordshire, England. The population of the built-up area was 30,240 in the 2011 census, whilst the population of the civil parish was 29,448. Har ...

North and Sandridge to become the largest party on the council with 21 councillors. The Liberal Democrats dropped to 20 seats, but did gain an increased share of the votes, while Labour stayed on 15 seats. There also remained 1 independent councillor and one seat was vacant after the death of Verulam Conservative councillor Michael Pugh on 22 April 2002. Overall turnout at the election was 38.22%, up from 33.56% at the 2000 election.

Ward results

By-elections between 2002 and 2003

A by-election was held in Verulam ward on 27 June 2002 after the death of Conservative councillor Michael Pugh. The seat was gained for the Liberal Democrats by Martin Frearson with a majority of 24 votes over the Conservatives, after Frearson had come second to the Conservatives in the seat at the council election in May. Turnout increased by 2% from the May council election and the number of spoiled ballots dropped to 2 from 30 at the May election when the trial of electronic voting had taken place in the ward.

References

{{United Kingdom local elections, 2002

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

2002 English local elections 2000s in Hertfordshire