In the run-up to the 2021 Senedd Election, Nub News will be profiling the candidates running for the Vale of Glamorgan.

Next up is the Wales Green Party leader and Vale of Glamorgan candidate Anthony Slaughter, who's hoping to raise the party's profile and breakthrough in the county, into the Senedd

Nub News joined Anthony while canvassing around Barry, who arrived in town via train.

"I've never driven," he said.

"But getting around on public transport here is hard. Greens will bring new ideas about public transport for the Vale.

"It's not about finger-wagging at people who drive, it's about making it better and easier to not use a car.

"We've got to work together with people, because people know things need to change."

Anthony joined the Green Party in 2010, inspired by Caroline Lucas winning the party's first seat in Westminster.

"I was fairly quiet member for a couple of years, but at the same time, at the community level I was very heavily engaged with Transition Town and green initiatives like community orchard planting and food schemes, and slightly more political campaigns like road safety," Anthony told Nub News.

"It was really inspiring, but we also kept coming up against the stumbling blocks of regulations, or councils or governments.

"That brought home to me the need for change, both at grassroots levels, but also changing the political structures that we operate in to create that better future we want.

"So I first stood for the council election in 2012, and within a few months I was running Westminster by election purely by coincidence. It's been pretty full on since then. We've had an election almost every year. I'm coming up for my ninth election in 10 years."

After almost a decade, Anthony still enjoys the campaigning.

"I enjoy the communicating with people, and that's something that we've sadly not been able to do this time, understandably, except in these last few weeks," he said.

"I also enjoy the debates on the doorstep. It's really healthy to have your ideas challenged, and have to explain why you believe what you do."

A Yorkshireman by birth, Anthony now lives in Penarth. So why stand for the Vale of Glamorgan seat?

"There's very much an appetite for environmentalism here. There's all these different community groups popping up," said Anthony.

"The regional list is what matters to us. That's where we've got a chance because of the elements of proportion.

"As well as this week's election, we're working towards the next local authority elections. That's where we need to make a really big breakthrough, so that people see Greens elected and they start seeing what happens.

"The key message is don't waste your second vote. People need to use their vote wisely on that regional list.

"The Scottish greens make their breakthrough in a similar system with on the regional list. They're in a position now to actually challenge for a constituency.

"There's an element of proportionality at play. It's not perfect, it's quite flawed. It's slightly skewed to favour the bigger parties.

"So, I think it's crucial to first get the regional Senedd votes so people see it's plausible to have Green Senedd members.

"Having that Green voice in the room can hold the rest to account to account on their promises.

"There's lots of well-meaning or ambitious words in politics that aren't always matched by implementation."

The party's main concerns are of course the climate crisis, but Anthony stressed how that doesn't mean local issues will go ignored.

"Social justice and environmental justice go hand in hand," he said.

"The impacts of climate crisis are going to affect the poorest and most vulnerable, the most here in Wales in the UK, but even more so across the world.

"We have some deprived areas in the Vale; poor housing, quality unemployment. If you can't offer solutions to the things that are affecting people in their personal lives, you can't expect them to care about the Amazon.

"One of the key pillars of our manifesto is investing in local communities; bringing the high streets back to life.

"The pandemic has been awful for small and independent businesses. But let's not pretend that they weren't in a bad way before. So, we very much hold community at heart of everything we do.

What does Anthony say to those who question the viability of the Green Party's plans in sectors beyond the environment?

"What's the cost of not doing what we're talking about? What's the customer when there aren't any left? There are no jobs on a dead planet, there's no economy on a dead planet," he said.

"Sometime you get into arguments with people who don't believe in the climate emergency, but regardless we're saying we want to make the air clearer, the water cleaner, and make the streets safer. What's not to vote for?

"We need to look at how the economy works, because it doesn't work to benefit of the majority, globally, in the UK and here in Wales.

"There's welcome growing recognition across the political spectrum, that something needs to happen for the planet.

"But there is still too much talk of business as usual, going back to how it was when how it was wasn't working.

"'How it was', was leaving lots of people leaving very precarious lives, the climate emergency is becoming more and more urgent, and none of the other parties are talking about the scale and speed to of the changes that are needed."