THE Worcestershire branch of the Green Party has launched a Crowdfunder campaign to raise the money for its election deposits in the Mid Worcestershire and Bromsgrove constituencies.

At the last general election the Green Party only polled 593 votes (or 1.2 per cent of the vote) in Mid Worcestershire, and didn’t even field a candidate in Bromsgrove.

Currently, the deposit in general elections, is £500, which by law has to be submitted when each candidate hands in their nomination papers. It only gets refunded if candidates gain five or more per cent of the total valid votes cast in the constituency.

A message on the Crowdfunder site reads: “We have the candidates and £500 deposits for Worcester, West Worcestershire, Wyre Forest and Redditch.

“We will soon be balloting local members to select candidates for the Mid Worcestershire and Bromsgrove constituencies.

“We need the remaining two lots of £500 to cover the deposits required to stand a candidate in Mid Worcestershire and Bromsgrove. Any money we raise above this £1000 will be used by the Green Party in Worcestershire to produce leaflets to get our message across to voters.

“If we don't raise the £1000 needed for the remaining deposits, some people in Worcestershire will not be able to vote Green at the general election.”

The Crowdfunder website allows members of the public to fund projects by pledging small amounts of money toward them, and the Worcester Green Party is hoping to raise at least £1,000 by 8:45pm on Tuesday, March 3. To date £424 has been raised by 36 backers.

Louis Stephen co-ordinator of Worcester Green Party launched the campaign. He said in a comment on the site: “My motivation for helping to set up this appeal was that if I was a first time voter and I could not vote Green, I might have been switched off, forever thinking that all parties are the same and voting makes no difference.

“Because of the generosity of loads of people I don't even know, it really looks like we could raise the funds.”

To view the Crowdfunder campaign, visit http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/worcestershire-green-party-election-deposit-fund.