The year of the monkey

Nick Morrison talks to Stuart Drummond about being thrown in at the deep end - and about falling out with Peter Mandelson.

BY rights, Stuart Drummond ought to be looking pale and drawn, worn down by the rigours of being thrust from a £10,000-a-year job as a credit controller for a mobile phone company to taking charge of a £100m-plus budget and some 4,000 employees. On top of that, he has been shunned by some of his colleagues, accused of making his home town a laughing stock, and generally dismissed as a joke. If anybody ought to be crumbling under the pressure, it's him.

Instead, the figure striding out of the mayor's office to greet me appears confident and relaxed, totally at ease in his surroundings. When I ask him, by way of a gentle loosener, how things are going, he replies: "It's alright", and it looks like he means it.

It's now a year since the then 28-year-old call centre worker became the first directly-elected Mayor of Hartlepool. It didn't quite propel him from obscurity - he had achieved a certain notoriety dressing as a monkey as Hartlepool United mascot H'Angus - but it did involve a dramatic change of career.

It also didn't exactly endear him to the town's ruling class. Not only was he an outsider muscling in on a job they'd probably earmarked for one of their own, but his election also left Labour's attempt to reinvigorate local government in tatters, not least because it was in the constituency of uber-moderniser Peter Mandelson. Directly elected mayors were once the way forward - now it's all gone quiet over there.

"It has been like falling in at the deep end, and it's been... interesting," says Mayor Drummond, with characteristic understatement. "But things are falling into place now: I'm bedding in and learning how things are done."

He admits he has spent the last 12 months largely finding out how things work and certainly his first year in office has not exactly been prolific. His first budget was twice rejected by councillors, until he was forced to abandon his goal of keeping the council tax rise to three-and-a-half per cent; he managed to keep a threatened sports centre open for a few months, but it's due to close this summer, and he had to abandon his central campaign pledge - free bananas for every schoolchild - because it was too expensive.

But it hasn't been a waste of time, and he is trying to put the experience to good use - he says he "learned a few harsh lessons" over the budget - and he's come to the conclusion that a lot of it is common sense, as well as gaining "a clear understanding" of what the council does.

"I have surprised myself in a lot of ways, when I've got involved in issues. When the budget was going through, I was up against the strategy forum and I must have spoken for 15 minutes, going through everything and answering all the questions," he says, swelling with pride at the memory.

And it must be a particular source of satisfaction: he may not have covered himself in glory, but neither has he fallen flat on his face. When he says: "People are either wanting me to fail or wanting me to do well, there is no in between," you guess that many of those he works with come in the former category.

He has come in for his fair share - perhaps more than his fair share - of criticism. A recent phone poll in the Hartlepool Mail found almost two thirds thought he was doing a bad job, but he says it isn't getting to him.

"You have to be thick-skinned; you can't let things get to you. I'm very laid back and it takes quite a lot to wind me up and get me upset or angry," he says. But he has had to put up with some particularly vitriolic abuse. Surely it must hurt?

"It does, it hurts to an extent," he concedes. "Not to the extent that I would lose any sleep over it, because people don't know the full facts. Obviously, my mother gets upset sometimes, which is quite upsetting for me."

And it's while we're talking about those who have turned against him that we alight upon the subject of Peter Mandelson, although Mayor Drummond never mentions him by name. It's well known that relations between the two have never exactly been amicable, but the Mayor has kept his mouth shut - until now.

"Even the MP has got in on it, after saying he would do everything to help me, but he has not done anything. I have had very few dealings with him," the Mayor says. "He is obviously upset that his candidate didn't get in. You would think he would be man enough to get over that and move on, but he still bears a grudge."

He says when the two come across each other, they barely exchange pleasantries. And he recounts an occasion, shortly after the mayoral election, when the council was putting a case for more money from the Government.

"I asked the MP to try and get a meeting for us, to argue our case. He just laughed it off and said, 'You have got ideas above your station'."

But when the Government was putting together a new policy on distributing cash to councils, incorporating some of Hartlepool's ideas, he says the MP suddenly appeared in the papers arguing the town's case.

"He obviously got wind of what we were saying and he was trying to claim the credit for it. It was a dirty trick, but what do you expect from a politician? I have got nothing to say to him and he has got nothing to say to me, but that's fine.

"The last month or so he has had a pop, and he has even said we should go back to the old system, when he was one of the biggest advocates of the directly-elected mayoral system. He wants to take his ball away with him."

The mayor also cites an incident about a month ago when he was invited to a centenarian's birthday party. "I popped down for an hour and he said the MP had been down. He said, 'I told him you were coming, and he said, 'He won't come'. I wasn't cut up, I was just a bit annoyed. He has got no right making assumptions of what I will or won't do. It is very unprofessional and it doesn't do anyone any favours."

But despite falling foul of the MP, the mayor claims he loves his job, and gets up every morning with a spring in his step, although he admits there are boring days and the bureaucracy can be frustrating.

Of course, there was the incident where he was spotted at a strip show, leading to accusations he'd brought shame on the town. He is unrepentant, insists he did nothing wrong, accuses his critics of over-reacting, but says he doesn't go to such shows now. "I think about what I do now," he says, in a nod to the relative novelty of his responsibilities.

After spending his first year getting to grips with his £53,000-a-year job, he is now hoping to put together a strategy for the next two years. At first it sounds quite vague, but he then lists a series of areas where he wants to see improvements, from community wardens to housing, promoting tourism to cleaning up the town.

As a dedicated Hartlepool United fan, it's no surprise that he's at his most animated when talking about his plans for the town's sports provision, and facilities for young people. Along with bananas, this provided his chief appeal to the electorate, and he has no trouble reeling off a list of proposed schemes. As an independent, without the backing of political parties to push his ideas through, he may be fighting a losing battle, but at least he's trying.

Although he says some councillors have been supportive, he admits it is sometimes a lonely job. But if anyone thought he would be a one-term wonder, he's determined to prove them wrong.

"I'm not overawed by the magnitude of the job, although I'm fully aware of it. It is fun and it can be amazing at times," he says. So will he stand for re-election in two years' time?

"Definitely. I want to say, 'This is what I have put in motion'. Come the next election, it won't be the monkey standing, it will be me, and people can judge me on my merits and what I have done."

In the end, politics may ensure his plans never reach fruition, but if a sincere desire to change things for the better were all there was to it, he will be in with a fighting chance.