The Green Party has said it is aiming to have more than 100 councillors in England and Wales after the May 4 local elections.

Launching its poll push on Tuesday, the party said it was fielding a total of 1,294 candidates.

There will be a particular focus on London, where 567 of the candidates are standing.

Camden, Hackney, Islington, Lambeth, Lewisham and Merton are among the London boroughs where the party is hoping to make gains.

The party is focusing its campaign on local issues that also chime with its commitment to sustainable development.

These include putting more money into public transport and safer streets for cyclists and pedestrians.

It is also calling for a halt to building on open spaces and a trebling in recycling rates.

The Greens are campaigning for more local shops instead of supermarkets, and organic school meals.

At its campaign launch, the party called for council tax to scrapped.

London assembly member Darren Johnson said the party wanted to see the tax replaced with a range of new options for local authorities to use.

"In many European countries there's not just one prescribed national scheme for raising local revenue - there are local environmental charges, sales taxes, tourist taxes and local authorities... have far more flexibility in how they raise their money," he said.

MEP Caroline Lucas said voters would be "looking for a party that is committed to equity, that is committed to challenging privatisation and things that the Labour Party was once for and is no longer".

She added that Conservative leader David Cameron had "very usefully put environmental issues much higher up the political agenda and for that we are very grateful".

"But if you look at what he is offering and how he reacts in interviews, television performances and in the newspapers, every time he's asked to deliver on a specific policy proposal you see him, ducking and diving, slipping and sliding," Lucas told reporters.

"He will not pin himself down to any real policy proposal. When people see the lack of substance behind his rhetoric that can only do us good."