Green Mayor of London hopeful Sian Berry talks Jeremy Corbyn, pedestrianisation and Heathrow Airport

The "Green surge" saw the party win a record number of votes in the general election and secure a much higher profile on the British political stage. But despite almost quadrupling their vote share, when the results were counted the left-wingers still had just one MP, in the shape of Brighton Pavilion's Caroline Lucas.

The party now faces numerous political challenges in the coming year, including the London mayoral election. Enter Sian Berry, a 41-year-old Camden councillor who has been chosen to lead the Green fight in the capital. The hopeful told IBTimes UK she would like to see more pedestrian zones in London, particularly in the West End.

"We should be looking at expanding an area within the West End. Taxis still need to get people to places but there are many opportunities to close other roads up and turn them into nice public places again," Berry says.

As for Oxford Street, a strip of road known for its shopping and high pollution levels, Berry wants to change it "radically" by introducing a shuttle tram. "We haven't finished our policy manifesto yet, but I talked about pedestrianising Oxford Street when I last stood in 2008. I really wanted to put a shuttle tram down the middle of it to enable people to get off the bus at either end. It would have been amazing – I will be arguing for that again," she explains.

The candidate is also, predictably, against a third runway at Heathrow Airport. Berry argues that London can "make do" with the runways it already has and more capacity would eat into the carbon emission quotas other sectors might need. Of course, transport is the meat and drink of Green policy, so how will the party cope if the eco-friendly Jeremy Corbyn is elected Labour leader on 12 September?

Berry, surprisingly, says the 66-year-old's victory would be a "really good thing", arguing the Greens' territory is "not a zero-sum game". In fact, because of Corbyn's opposition to nuclear weapons and Green-like transport policies, Berry is optimistic that the veteran parliamentarian could expand the "space" to discuss green issues with more "sophisticated debates".

Likewise, Berry isn't fazed by Tory MP Zac Goldsmith. The 40-year-old is tipped to become the Conservative candidate and, with his green credentials, Goldsmith is the current favourite to succeed Boris Johnson in City Hall. But beyond the environment, Berry said the two "are very different" and claimed he was "very much a Conservative".

Despite Berry's fighting spirit, the candidate is very unlikely to win the 2016 election. The latest opinion poll, conducted in August by Survation, showed just 6% of Londoners would vote for the Greens. The party can take some pride in the fact that their forecast is higher than the Liberal Democrats (5%), but the Greens were still behind Ukip (7%), the Conservatives (35%) and Labour (44%).