ELLIE Chowns, the Green Party’s candidate for North Herefordshire, will appear in a live national TV debate tonight (April 25) on Channel 4 News at 7pm.

The county councillor and former MEP will represent the Green Party of England and Wales in The UK Decides: Local Elections Debate, being held in Gloucester ahead of elections in some English areas on May 2.

The leader of the Green group on Herefordshire Council, Dr Chowns will face national representatives of the Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats and Reform, with the broadcast also available online.

“Across the country, people are fed up of the same old politics of the two main parties – they are desperate for change, for fresh ideas and fresh views,” Dr Chowns said.

“That is why they are increasingly turning to the Greens, for a party that both genuinely cares about local issues and has a plan for the future.”

The party is buoyed by successes in the previous round of English local elections last year, in which it upped its tally in Herefordshire from seven seats to nine.

There are no council elections in Herefordshire next month, though voters in the county can still choose the next police and crime commissioner for the West Mercia area.

The Greens now have over 750 councillors on nearly 170 councils in England and Wales, and is solely or jointly in control of one in ten of them.

“At every election, a vote for the Green Party helps to get more Greens elected locally and build support for policies like fairer transport and warmer, more affordable housing,” Dr Chowns said.

She will be standing against Sir Bill Wiggin – who lives in the North Herefordshire constituency in Upton Bishop, three miles from Ross – in the general election expected later this year.

The Greens have said their own polling shows they are in with a chance of taking the seat, one of the party’s four targets to win nationally.

But polling firms predict it will remain safely in Sir Bill’s hands, with Jesse Norman’s Hereford and South Herefordshire seat, which includes Ross, being a closer contest between Conservative and Labour.