Exeter Green Party is to stand candidates in all wards up for election in the city this May. Polling company Marketing Means released an election poll last month showing a large swing to the Green Party in the South West. [1] Having polled an average 1% in the region last year, the Greens now stand at 6% in the region, largely at the expense of the LibDems who have seen their support collapse by 17%. However, in Exeter, where the Green Party already poll around 10% on average, a 17% swing from Lib Dems to Greens could see the Party winning at least a quarter of the vote. In Alphington and St James, where the Green Party has polled as much as 18% of the vote, a large swing could see Exeter electing its first ever Green councillors.

Isaac Price-Sosner, the Green Party candidate for St James said: “Caroline Lucas MP has shown just how effective the Green Party is in Parliament; local Green Party councillors across the country have been pushing through positive solutions to social, economic and environmental problems in their communities. Exeter should not have to miss out any longer! Now is the time to elect Green councillors to the City Council to push for the same kind of solutions – ones that protect public services, create new green jobs, tackle poverty and improve the quality of life for local residents”

Andrew Bell, Green Party candidate for Alphington added, “Councillors from the three larger Parties will try and tell you that wards are a two horse race. But it is clear that the collapse of Lib Dem support across the region is going to make this a very interesting election with the possibility of some surprising results”.

http://www.marketingmeans.co.uk/News/South-West-Poll-Results-2011.aspx