Many observers regard The Green Party as the one to watch in the coming years as it continues its inexorable rise through the British political landscape.

A breed of electable activists is also emerging - and Kent County Council Green Party group leader Rich Lehmann is one of them. Simon Finlay met up with him…

The Green Party has come a long, long way from its erstwhile and undeserved image as a home for bearded sandal-wearers who campaigned about "the environment" long before anyone knew or cared about it.

Often dismissed as cranks, the old Ecology Party had a reputation for being more left-wing than Labour, even in the mid-1970s.

Today, it is slick, electable and given the state of the planet, the slogan at its annual conference could read: "Told you so."

Leader of the five-strong group at Kent County Council, Rich Lehmann, is typical of that new breed of Green Party activist one sees in council chambers up and down the land.

He was born 48 years ago in Sidcup and grew up in Medway.

A house move saw a switch to Winston Junior School in Chatham (closed in 1992) and later emerged from Chatham South School (closed in 2010) with three GCSEs in maths, English and music.

"I was failed by an outdated school system that sets your future when you're 10 years old, so I guess you can infer from that what my opinion of the grammar school system is."

Cllr Lehmann's parents split up when he was young with his father allowed access to him and his brother until he moved back to his native Germany.

"I was seeing him every other week and it became monthly and then he went back to Germany and not much after that."

His wine importer father, who he characterises as a heavy smoking drinker, died 17 years ago and that relationship convinced him that he did not want children himself.

"I suppose I didn't want to be a cr*p parent. I never had a strong urge to be a parent."

But the experience has clearly shaped his thinking, when he adds: "It has probably affected my outlook on life when the only frame of reference is the path you take."

He did not attend university and took a number of different jobs including an office role for the Chatham branch of Lloyds of London before taking up administrator role in Swindon, which was well-paid if stressful.

It was during this time, he revisited a childhood hobby which he could see developing into a business - photography.

"It has been a pastime of mine since I was about nine after my nan gave me a camera. I just took shots of stuff around me like days out."

He and his wife Rebecca moved back to Kent in order to focus on building up his wedding photography business.

Cllr Lehmann joined the Greens nine years ago, just before the Rochester and Strood parliamentary by-election, a pitched battle fought bitterly on all sides.

The media attention was huge, particularly because it was sparked by a defection from the Conservatives to UKIP.

Mark Reckless, the Tory defector, squeaked through by less than 3,000 votes, despite opposition tactical voting.

It was a time when Prime Minister David Cameron was starting to get jittery about UKIP's popularity, one reason for offering the Brexit referendum to the people.

The far-right Britain First (BF) was already starting to pop up in places like Medway, where there is a large ethnic population.

"Britain First were very active in Medway at that time and I participated in a blockade to prevent them marching down Rochester High Street," he says.

As it happens, the BF's Jayda Fransen polled just 56 votes at that election. So, why the Green Party?

Cllr Lehmann said: "Their policies are all totally aligned with my world view. In particular, around social equality, the environment and democracy.

"The Green Party has a strong link with environmental issues and it is something that the other main parties try to advertise themselves with to some degree."

The movement emerged from PEOPLE Party, formed in the early 1970s, which morphed into the Ecology Party before going Green in the 80s.

Cllr Lehmann dismisses accusations the Greens are awash with Marxists but does suggest there must be fairer ways of providing public services to the sixth richest economy in the world.

"It doesn't feel like we are," he adds, pointedly.

Asked if he believes that Britain is "broken", he says: "You could say that. I would also say that we haven't got a cost-of-living crisis but an equality crisis. Inequality has risen and risen in the past 13 years.

"A desire to reverse that has been described as Marxism but I wouldn't say that."

The Green Party's membership flew for a lot of years but as the Labour Party went further to the left under Jeremy Corbyn, that support started to drift away.

And the further the Tories "go to the right", the happier hunting ground it will be for the left, he says. There are around 2,000 Green Party members in Kent.

Cllr Lehmann lives with Rebecca and their cat in a cosy semi in Faversham in a quiet cul-de-sac not far from the centre of the historic town.

The back garden is a re-wilding project, although that serves as a convenient reason for not giving it as much attention as they should, given their non-stop hectic lives.

For the Lehmann household, the pandemic temporarily wiped out his wedding photography business leaving time for him to concentrate on politics.

Before standing for the 2021 KCC election, he was not entirely convinced it was for him.

"I didn't jump at the chance - I had to have my arm twisted by a few people."

The fledgling candidate used skills honed in data analysis to work out which areas to target.

"You basically use the data to see which villages have the highest voter turnout and so on. Everywhere got leafleted because we didn't have the resources to knock every door."

The Greens are excited about next year's general election and with good reason.

The polling prediction service Electoral Calculus says the Green share of the national vote will more than double from 2.8% to 6%, albeit not gaining any more than the one seat it already has.

The issues of house building in the south east, worsening air pollution, climate change and water companies dumping millions of gallons of raw sewage into rivers and the sea will play straight into the Green Party's hands.

Cllr Lehmann adds: "Nationally, we are looking forward to gains in Bristol, Waveney Valley and Herefordshire North in the general election."

When the 2025 KCC elections swing round again, there are high hopes of success across Kent.

He added: "We have a huge opportunity to build on our successes of the past few years. In April 2019, we had one Green councillor in Kent and now we have 52.

"At county level we quadrupled our group size at the last election, and whilst quadrupling again might be a bit of a stretch, I think we have a good chance to increase from four to somewhere between 10 and 15.

"We’ll obviously be focusing in the areas where we had the greatest success at district level this year – Folkestone and Hythe, Ashford, Tonbridge, Sevenoaks and Maidstone

"But there are a few other places where we have a chance of picking up a seat if we are able to find the right candidates."

In the chamber at County Hall, Cllr Lehmann is considered by colleagues of all sides as a reasonable man, who provides thoughtful contributions to debates and never rises to the temptation of confrontation.

Cllr Lehmann is very much a novice who has learnt quickly.

A Tory backbencher said: "Rich is a very likeable guy, clearly diligent and hard-working. He never turns up unprepared or not having studied the papers."

His role as the group leader of the five-strong Green Party at County Hall is all consuming, working 50 - 60 hour weeks, travelling to and from County Hall.

Had Cllr Lehmann decided to combine both his political and professional roles, he confesses "neither would probably have been done properly".

"There was one week in July, when there were 42 hours of meetings and that did not include read agendas and answering emails."

With a half smile, he adds: "My wife was not impressed...but we do make a conscious effort to book in quality time together."