Dartford Urban District was a

local authority Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It was appointed in 1894 to provide local government to Dartford town and its immediate environs including, from 1925,

Dartford Heath Dartford Heath Common is an area of open heathland situated to the south-west of Dartford, Kent, England, covering around of open space. Dartford Heath is classified as lowland heath and is one of only two substantial heathland blocks remaining ...

. It replaced the Dartford Local Board, and had fifteen

councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

seats. Local businessman Everard Hesketh, owner of

J & E Hall J & E Hall is an English manufacturer of refrigeration equipment (today part of the Daikin group). It was originally established as an iron works in Dartford, Kent in 1785, with products including papermaking machines, steam engines and gun carriag ...

, had been elected to the Local Board in 1884 and continued to serve on Dartford Urban District Council (DUDC) until 1913. He donated land to the district, which became Hesketh Park in 1904. Another prominent member was James Sharp, owner of James Sharp and Son, builders and timber merchants, in Hythe Street, Dartford, and the nearby Baltic Saw Mills DUDC were instrumental in the establishment of Dartford’s Central Park, Museum and

Library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

. They built a power station in Priory Road for the town in 1901, and on 14 February 1906 opened the Dartford Council Light Railways tram system, which operated until November 1935 when

tram A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...

s were replaced by a fleet of

trolleybus A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or trol ...

es. The council maintained the local

sewage works Sewage treatment (or domestic wastewater treatment, municipal wastewater treatment) is a type of wastewater treatment which aims to remove contaminants from sewage to produce an effluent that is suitable for discharge to the surrounding envir ...

and marketed dried sludge from it as agricultural

fertiliser A fertilizer (American English) or fertiliser (British English; see spelling differences) is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from ...

. The authority was perhaps the first

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

council to lend its support to the establishment of specialist state-run clinics for the treatment of babies and children under five to combat the then high

infant mortality rate Infant mortality is the death of young children under the age of 1. This death toll is measured by the infant mortality rate (IMR), which is the probability of deaths of children under one year of age per 1000 live births. The under-five morta ...

in Britain. The council worked with the Dartford Traders' Association to have the town awarded a

Charter of Incorporation A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the rec ...

; this was finally achieved in 1933, after which the Municipal Borough of Dartford came into being. The Urban District Council held its last meeting on 4 October 1933.

Dartford Rural District Dartford Rural District was a rural district with an area of in the county of Kent, England. In 1971 it had a population of 64,561 and an electorate of 43,911. At dissolution it was the most populous rural district council in Kent, but had o ...

did not join the borough until 1974.

References

{{coord missing, United Kingdom Urban districts of England 1894 establishments in England 1933 disestablishments in England Dartford