| Election Name: | 2002 Harlow District Council election |
| Type: | Parliamentary |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Party Colour: | yes |
| Previous Election: | 2000 Harlow District Council election |
| Previous Year: | 2000 |
| Next Election: | 2003 Harlow District Council election |
| Next Year: | 2003 |
| Seats For Election: | 11 of the 33 seats to Harlow District Council |
| Majority Seats: | 17 |
| Election Date: | 2 May 2002 |
| Party1: | Conservative Party (UK) |
| Seats Before1: | 8 |
| Seats1: | 12 |
| Seat Change1: | 4 |
| Seats After1: | 12 |
| Popular Vote1: | 19,201 |
| Percentage1: | 31.8% |
| Party2: | Liberal Democrats (UK) |
| Seats Before2: | 8 |
| Seats2: | 12 |
| Seat Change2: | 4 |
| Seats After2: | 12 |
| Popular Vote2: | 17,943 |
| Percentage2: | 29.7% |
| Party3: | Labour Party (UK) |
| Seats Before3: | 26 |
| Seats3: | 9 |
| Seat Change3: | 17 |
| Seats After3: | 9 |
| Popular Vote3: | 22,752 |
| Percentage3: | 37.7% |
| Map Size: | 300px |
| Council control | |
| Posttitle: | Council control after election |
| Before Election: | Labour |
| After Election: | No overall control |
The 2002 Harlow District Council election took place on 2 May 2002 to elect members of Harlow District Council in Essex, England. The whole council was up for election with boundary changes since the last election in 2000 reducing the number of seats by 9.[1] The Labour party lost overall control of the council to no overall control.[2]
Before the election Labour controlled the council with 25 councillors, compared to 8 each for the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, while there was 1 independent councillor.[3] Boundary changes took effect for the 2002 election, reducing the number of councillors from 42 to 33 and the number of wards from 16 to 11 and meaning that the whole council was to be elected.[3]
11 Labour and 1 Conservative councillors stood down at the election, including the Labour assistant leader Derek Fenny and a former council chairman Terry Abel.[4]
Labour were reduced by 16 seats and thereby lost overall control of the council.[5] Overall turnout at the election was 36.84%.[6]
Following the election the Conservative and Liberal Democrat leaders, Andrew Johnson and Lorna Spenceley, made an agreement to be joint leaders of the council.[7]