IF constituents in Derby North don't know it yet, the knocking on their doors and leaflets through their letterboxes mean they soon will – they are at the heart of a political battleground.

A target has been drawn around the area, which includes Mickleover, Allestree and Darley Abbey, by each of the three main parties in the run-up to this year's general election.

The Liberal Democrats have declared the Labour seat of Derby North is number 30 on their "hit list". For the Conservatives it is 130.

Current MP Bob Laxton is retiring and on Saturday Derby City Council's Labour group leader, Chris Williamson, was selected to defend the seat.

With Liberal Democrat councillor Lucy Care and the Conservative's Stephen Mold announced as candidates, battle can now commence.

The three-way tussle for power has started attracting national attention and several pundits have the Tories as the slight outsiders.

Mr Mold is getting used to being called an outsider.

As a Oxfordshire-born sales and marketing director, he is the only one of the three who is not originally from Derby and not a serving city councillor.

But he claims being an outsider is a double-edged sword.

"The disadvantage is I don't get the recognition, I don't get as much coverage as the others because they are in the papers as councillors a lot more. But it also means I don't end up with the baggage they have, because I haven't upset half as many people."

He is determined to continue campaigning on doorsteps but believes that when it comes down to it people will vote on the parties' main policies and their leaders.

"Ultimately, Chris Williamson has got to sell Gordon Brown and I have got to sell David Cameron – I know which I'd rather sell," he said.

"Mr Williamson's chances would have gone up significantly had Geoff Hoon's attempts to oust Gordon Brown been successful."

The lines between a vote locally and nationally could well become even more blurred this year, as it is expected the general election will take place on the same day as the locals.

It will mean as well as voting for their ward councillor, people will have a separate vote for their MP in the House of Commons.

Some of the local council wards within Derby North are Liberal Democrat strongholds.

Others are Tory domains.

But Mr Mold does not think local Lib Dem presence will translate into votes for Lucy Care in the general election.

"When it comes to the Lib Dems, I hear a lot of people on the doorstep tell me they vote Lib Dems locally but will vote Conservative nationally because they see the Lib Dems as a wasted vote in the general election," he said.

"On the other side, I can't see many people who vote Tory locally voting Lib Dem nationally."

"Wasted vote" is a phrase Lucy Care is keen to banish and believes her local links will help do that.

She said: "The message of a wasted vote is becoming less and less, because people see the example of what we have achieved in local government from having no councillors to now leading the council."

Derby-born Mrs Care does not think the Tories have an advantage by being a step away from criticism when it comes to local issues.

"I think people see the Tories as not having a say locally and not being as relevant locally and nationally," she said.

"There are always the influences of the national media which pushes very hard for a two-horse national race but people need to recognise, and I think local people do, that they are not really casting a vote to choose a prime minister, they are casting a vote for someone to represent them and that's more important because, as we have seen, a prime minister can change without having a general election."

She has confidence people will view positively the efforts of the Lib Dem council and cites expanding the city's recycling and improving sustainable travel as success stories.

When it comes to things within Derby North that have proved less popular, such as the planned Kedleston Road bus lane, she is quick to dismiss them.

"They are not issues people have significantly raised with me," she said. "Some people feel very strongly about them but the majority of people accept them as being not ideal but they understand the reasons for them or they or not as important as many other issues."

But Mrs Care does not believe Mr Williamson's time as leader of the council until the 2008 local elections will give him the same advantage.

"The things he will be remembered for are different to mine," she said.

"He promoted the importance of spending on city centre public realm and he was pushing for the spending on a visionary Time and Place art installation. People will make a judgement about what they think is most important."

The veiled jibe is something Mr Williamson disagrees with and said he would be using his local position to the full.

When he was selected by his party on Saturday to represent Labour, Chris Williamson said: "I've made no secret about my focus throughout the selection campaign and that is Derby. I'm a Derby man, born and bred."

He said he believed local experience will be an advantage at election time and, if he does get elected, a help in his MP role.

"I think local experience is very much an asset because it gives an insight into local issues on the ground and it is about representing people and issues that are important to them.

"The danger is that people without that experience, and certainly people coming from outside, don't have a real handle on the real issues in the area."

While Lucy Care mocks his fixation on the public realm in Derby, Mr Williamson said he stands by his record.

I'm proud of my period as leader of the council," he said.

"We were in the process of transforming Derby and regrettably that has slid to a halt under the Lib Dem control of the council.

"What we were trying to do with the public realm, and I still believe is extremely important, is to bring inward investment and attract relocations. It would seem a very naive and short-sighted view of the world if Lucy Care can't see the public realm as crucial in attracting those investments and jobs."

Defending a Labour seat, Mr Williamson will have to get used to defending his party's leader. Mr Mold may think he has an easier sell with David Cameron when it comes to campaigning – unsurprisingly, Mr Williamson thinks otherwise.

"I don't think politics should be about personalities, even though the media often like to narrow it down to that level. Leaders are important but if you look at the gravitas of Gordon Brown compared to David Cameron, David Cameron is undoubtedly a lightweight.

"There have been challenges and difficulties while Gordon Brown has been leading the country, which have led to criticism, but we are now coming out of a recession and haven't seen the level of unemployment of the 1980s under the Conservatives.

"In my view, it is clear when one looks at the record of Gordon Brown that he has steered the country through these very choppy waters in a very effective fashion."

Based on the comments of all three candidates, you may be able to write your own campaign slogans for them.

Conservatives could do worse than sticking with "it's time for change", something which saw success for them in the local elections for Derbyshire County Council last year when they snatched control from Labour for the first time in 28 years.

With Labour having been in Government since 1997 and the local council having been run by Labour and the Lib Dems for years, it would be a catchphrase that may well capture both those voters who make their decision based on local issues and those who make judgements nationally.

Based on Mrs Care's confidence, she could end up going for something along the lines of "if this is what we can do locally, imagine what we could do nationally." It could be a risky strategy and leave her open to the more than one quip from her opponents.

And for Labour? Mr Williamson has already started to point to local schemes he brought in when he was leader of the city council and indicated how they were made possible by having a Labour Government in power. On his blog he lists the introduction of 327 more doctors, 701 more nurses, 92 more midwives and 13 new schools in Derby under Labour.

Whether constituents in Derby North end up voting on local issues or policy and leadership, they will have to brace themselves for a barrage of campaign literature and rhetoric as their constituency is set to gain national attention.