Greens holding conference ahead of council elections push

The Scottish Greens are targeting a record number of elected representatives across Scotland as they meet for the party's spring conference in Glasgow.

The event will open with a focus on May's local government elections, in which the Greens are fielding more than 200 candidates.

The party is hoping to increase its presence in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stirling, Aberdeenshire and Midlothian, and secure its first councillors in most other local authorities.

The Greens returned six MSPs in 2016's Scottish election, becoming the fourth-largest party at Holyrood.

Maggie Chapman, co-convener of the party alongside Patrick Harvie, said more Green councillors would mean more power to protect local services and renew local democracy.

Ms Chapman is expected to say: “Our local democracy is in desperate need of renewal and Green councillors will be champions for change and the voices for renewal that our councils need to support caring and creating communities across Scotland.

“We are working towards our biggest-ever local authority election campaign, where we want to convert the success of becoming the fourth-largest party in the Scottish Parliament last year to having more Greens elected across Scotland than have ever been elected in our party's history.”

She will add: “We are the only party in Scotland that seems to be taking these elections seriously as local council elections - where local people get to decide what happens in their local areas.

“Council elections are about deciding how our social care services are delivered, how our schools function, how our parks and green spaces are maintained, how we treat our homeless people.

“These are the issues we need to be focused on in the coming eight weeks.”

The conference will also hear from Mr Harvie, who has defended the Greens' decision to vote through the Scottish Government's 2017/18 budget despite securing only minor changes to its tax policy and additional spending for local services.

The Greens had previously called for ministers to go much further on income tax, prompting opposition parties to accuse the party of backing the SNP administration as part of a push for a second independence referendum.

Scottish Labour environment spokeswoman Claudia Beamish said: “The Scottish Greens used to prioritise the environment but now their main purpose appears to be helping the SNP to force through cuts to local services like schools and hospitals, and pushing for another divisive independence referendum.”

The Conservatives have written to Green MSPs ahead of its conference, calling for them to stick by their promise to only support a second vote if it is driven “by the will of the people”.

Tory MSP Annie Wells said: “Patrick Harvie has the chance this weekend to show the Scottish Greens are an independent party which can be trusted on their word.

“Or he can show that the Scottish Greens are prepared to ditch their own beliefs in order to play out their role as SNP lapdogs.”