Battleground Dartford goes to the polls

By Jennifer Hill

DARTFORD (Reuters) - It seems like any other day in Dartford: children meander to school, pensioners wheel their trolley-bags to the supermarket and mothers push their toddlers up the main street.

This Kent town is typical of the London commuter belt: the pedestrianised shopping precinct abounds with the usual high street names, threatening to swallow up the few remaining independent retailers -- "Price Less Shoes" and "Cut Price Cards" -- while the bi-weekly market bustles with traders plying their low-priced meat and big knickers.

But Dartford is also a battleground. It is at the centre of a political struggle which could see the curtain fall on over a decade of Labour's rule.

It was here that Conservative leader David Cameron chose to kick off his party's campaign for the local elections, and unsurprisingly so: it is one of the Tories' top target seats and an area seen as a bellwether for the general election.

Dartford Council is led by a coalition between the Conservatives and the Swanscombe and Greenhithe Residents' Association. The Tories, with 21 seats, are the largest party, and need just two more to take control.

It is also one of a string of marginal Labour parliamentary seats in Kent; Labour holds seven here and five, Dartford among them, have a majority of less than 1,000.

In the past, when Tories have taken the council, it is said to indicate that the party might sweep to national power.

The significance of all this of course is not universally understood.