When it comes to winning votes, the Medway Greens say they’re not fighting against other parties.

Instead, they think it’s more constructive to try to put across how they would do things differently rather than complaining about what other political groups might be doing.

The thing they are really fighting is your misconceptions about them.

I met Cat Jamieson and Matt Nightingale in The Moat House Coffee Shop, just off Rochester High Street.

Both were candidates in the Cuxton, Halling and Riverside ward at the elections in May, with Matt missing out on a Medway Council seat by only 44 votes.

They’re environmentally conscious, and throughout our conversation we talk about the climate crisis a lot, but they’re not single-minded - they just see the way local governments should run a little differently.

Their main pitch is that they believe the way councils have been run is too isolated, thinking about issues separately instead of considering how they might be related.

Cat says: “A lot of issues are kind of interrelated. For example, if you address air pollution and bring down carbon emissions you will increase health and well-being, which will have a knock-on effect of reducing pressures on the health service.

“So Medway Council has its local plan being worked on at the moment over here and also has a climate action plan over there, but unless everything is interlinked it’s just not going to work.

“Our approach is to look at how we do things differently, and we would be more ambitious and see how everything links and works together to make real change which addresses health, well-being, the cost of living, and the environmental crisis at the same time.”

Cat’s been living and working in Medway for the past 20 years and she says her work with young people got her involved with the Greens as it was all about giving teenagers and children the best possible future.

She said: “I started thinking if we really want to be helping young people and preparing them for their future, we need to make sure they have a future.

“After I had my child, I had more time because I wasn't working full-time anymore so I found I had more time and space and I joined and got active locally with the Greens.”

Matt is from Cuxton and has lived there all his life. He got involved with the Greens after he was elected to Cuxton parish council.

He said: “I know the people there and I know the place."

He doesn't feel the current ward councillors representing the area on Medway Council are doing enough.

“I’m vice chairman of Cuxton parish council. We had a meeting last night - neither ward councillors attended, we had no ward councillor report. Only one of them even sent apologies.

“I don't feel they're engaging with us and that’s irritated me and I know it annoys so many people in the village.”

Cuxton, Halling and Riverside is held by the Conservatives, but only narrowly - with both the Green candidates coming second by only 44 votes.

They attribute their success here - obtaining over a third of the vote - to Matt being a local, well-known voice for the community.

“He's really well known in the community,” Cat says, “and really well-liked, because people know who he is.

“So I think there was a genuine and credible belief that Matt would do what's right for the village and that was a really strong reason why people came out to vote for him.

“I think everyone appreciated that you're not just a corporate party person who just comes down for some evening meetings. You were very committed as you've proved with all your work."

Matt added: “I was actually astounded by how much support I got.

“I had lots of messages throughout the campaign saying “I got your leaflet. You've got my vote” because I offered something different.

“People often just say 'we're so sick of what's already been going on, we want someone new, we know you, you’re local - you've got our vote'.”

Herein lies what Matt and Cat say is the key to their success in Cuxton, Halling and Riverside, and what they aim to replicate elsewhere: being hyper-local.

Cat says: “When you go to different areas, different issues come up. It can be really specific things like certain planning applications or developments, or it can be more broad.

“For Cuxton, Halling and Riverside residents, most people are quite happy, like living in the villages, but they say 'I’ve written to my councillor and not had anything back'.

“There’s that kind of annoyance. I think what we’re trying to do is match up very local candidates, people who really know their communities and are involved with what the people there care about, with a Medway-wide strategy for dealing with things.

“Obviously some things are very ward-specific, but others can be improved if you say 'well in Rainham we need this and in Strood we need that, here’s a solution where we can get both.'”

Matt agrees: “It’s coordination, making sure the left hand knows what the right is doing.”

Although the Greens aren’t on the council, this doesn’t mean they are limited in their efforts, and they work on levels from parish councils to community groups. Even from the outside they’re trying to influence Medway Council towards their way of thinking.

They’re complimentary about the authority’s efforts towards climate change, and have been involved with groups that work with Medway’s climate team, but they also feel they need to be more ambitious.

However, they’re aware some people need a bit more convincing than others.

Matt says: “There's definitely some misconceptions of the Green Party. I think there's people who think it’s all we care about and we’re militant about it.

“Some people want to be more environmentally friendly but think we might force them to be vegan or something - that’s not what we’re actually about.

“None of us are perfect and we can’t expect ourselves to be. We're realistic about it.

“We know not everyone can make these changes and we don't ask everyone to make lots of changes. We contribute where we can.”

Cat adds: “Some of our members have electric cars, but a lot of us don't because we're on lower incomes and we can't afford the switch.

“There are lots of barriers that we understand and we're not forcing any views on people. It's more a systems change that we're after.

“Take housing. We all accept we need more homes, but Tories and Labour get these targets and just try to meet them.

“We want to ask what sort of homes do we need, where do we need them, are local people going to benefit from them?

“And then we look at how to make sure they’re sustainable, that they’re not going to need to be knocked down in 10 years, and make sure they’re energy-efficient so they don’t cost an arm and a leg to live in.

“It’s longer-term thinking that you’d expect to be common sense, but we see too much short-term thinking.”

Matt and Cat tell me they think the key is letting people know they’re there - a viable option for people who are tired of voting for people who say one thing and then do another, and then aren’t contactable.

With only 44 votes away from a seat at the table the Medway Greens could be a future force in the Town’s politics.