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The Green party has launched its local election campaign with a pledge that the party’s councillors will act as “insurgents” to shake up complacent local authorities with traditionally overwhelming Labour or Conservative majorities.

Speaking at a launch event in South London the Green co-leader, Jonathan Bartley, said even a handful of Green representatives could make a difference, arguing that his party had replaced Ukip as the main outside challenger to political orthodoxies.

He cited the example of Alison Teal, one of a handful of Greens on Sheffield city council, who has taken a leading role in opposing the Labour-dominated authority’s hugely controversial plan to cut down more than 17,000 local trees.

“People are incredibly angry and feel incredibly betrayed by these one-party states, councils which have lost touch with local people,” Bartley said.

The party is contesting more than 2,200 seats in the election on May 3 which cover all councils in London and some metropolitan, unitary and district authorities elsewhere in England, about half the total.

The poll will mark a major test for a party which was badly squeezed at the last general election – its vote total fell by more than half from 2015, to just over 500,000 – something seen as being caused in part by the leftward shift of a Jeremy Corbyn-led Labour.

However, the Greens are keen to push the message that many Labour councils are different. The launch took place at the Central Hill estate in Crystal Palace, which the Labour-run council wants to demolish despite opposition from many residents.

The local authority, Lambeth, has run into a number of controversies over the way it has responded to reduced funding, notably over schemes to replace housing estates, and the closure of libraries.

Labour holds 59 of the 63 councils seats, with just three Conservatives and one Green as opposition.

But Bartley said he was hopeful of making gains, pointing to a byelection in 2016 which saw the Green candidate come within 36 votes of taking a seat in what had been the borough’s safest Labour ward

“On that basis, any seat across the whole of Lambeth is vulnerable, where people feel the council has lost touch,” he said.

With national politics becoming increasingly two-party – the 2017 election saw the Conservatives and Labour gain almost 83% of all votes – Bartley said the opportunity was there for another party to take over from Ukip as a voice of dissent.

“We’re the insurgents,” he said. “You could call us the Ukip of the left – we have even taken a seat from Ukip. We couldn’t be more opposed to Ukip’s policies on things like migration, but that feeling of not having control is very. very strong.

“I’ve often been around parts of northern England knocking on doors and people say, ‘I’m either going to vote Green or Ukip.’ I tell them, ‘Do you know what we stand for?’ But it is that feeling of being an insurgent party.”