The local constituencies of “Sutton & Cheam” and “Carshalton & Wallington” are key battlegrounds in the upcoming election and so recently have been bombarded by party officials and perhaps more noticeably, a very visual advert campaign.

The constituencies are currently both held by the Liberal Democrats but are targets for the Conservatives as “Sutton & Cheam” and “Carshalton & Wallington” hold only a 6.3% and 2.9% difference between the two parties respectively. Due to this small difference the seats have seen large attention from both the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives over the past few weeks with Nick Clegg even personally visiting Sutton Town Centre.

However, party officials cannot always be around to convince us to vote for their party but a remedy has been found this; billboards. The campaign in the area was described by one local man as “inescapable, on one billboard there was a party poster and across the street was the same poster.” It is true that political posters and placards have a noticeable presence in the borough but are they working?

I asked local residents if the campaigns in the area were convincing them to change their political allegiance, sadly all those asked replied “no.” One woman said “They don’t tell us anything about what the party’s policies are just what they don’t like about the others. Some of them are only a few words long or just have a candidate name. How is that meant to persuade me?”