The Conservative Party has lost control of Buckinghamshire Council and Hertfordshire County Council
Voting took place for 97 seats at Buckinghamshire Council and all 78 seats at Hertfordshire County Council on Thursday
Counts are taking place in Aylesbury, and across Herts
The unitary Bucks Council replaced the county and district councils in 2020 and its first set of elections in 2021 gave the Conservatives a huge majority
After gains for Reform UK, the Lib Dems and Greens, the Conservatives have lost control of Hertfordshire County Council
The Tories had been in charge at Herts since 1999
All seats have been declared for Buckinghamshire Council and the Conservatives have lost overall control of the council by one seat.
Amy Holmes
Political reporter, BBC Three Counties
Buckinghamshire Council becomes the latest authority where the Conservatives have lost full control, and again Reform UK has played its part.
The Tories - who have controlled both the unitary council and the previous county council for many years - ended up one short of the 49 seats required for a majority, after the Liberal Democrats picked up a councillor in the Missenden Ward, which in 2021 had been a safe Tory seat.
Martin Tett, the Conservative group leader on the authority, will now have to work with his fellow councillors to find a smaller party to form a coalition with over the next couple of days.
Tett attributed Reform UK's vote share in some seats as playing a part in his party's losses, although the party only picked up three seats in the county it perhaps stopped the Tories in several other wards.
The Liberal Democrats have also increased the party's councillors on the authority and return to being the second largest party.
The Green Party has also doubled its number of councillors, but Labour have dropped to four, with 11 Independents and two Wycombe Independents making up the council, which was reduced from 147 councillors to 97 by the Boundary Commission for England.
Amy Holmes
BBC political reporter, Buckinghamshire
Image source, Amy Holmes/BBCMartin Tett says his party will spend some time reflecting on its next steps
It has been a bad day at the office for the Conservatives, after the party lost its majority on Buckinghamshire Council by one seat.
Martin Tett, the leader of the Conservatives on the authority, says "great" council leaders and councils have been lost.
"Here in Buckinghamshire we have bucked the trend a bit. We haven't been wiped out, we are pretty well neck-and-neck between the Conservatives and all of the other parties added together, and I think we really just need to spend a little bit of time over the next two days to decide what to do," he says.
He says the party will now spend the coming days looking at its options.
"The people of Buckinghamshire deserve a good council, well run with a good majority... we need time to assess what that might look like.
"Reform has cannibalised our vote seat after seat after seat, this is why we now have the knife-edge situation we have in terms of the Conservatives having pretty much half the seats, but without Reform I think we would have a pretty substantial majority."
The Conservatives have lost control of Buckinghamshire Council after Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats made big gains at the local elections.
The Tories won 48 seats, falling one seat short of the majority of 49 required on the 97-member unitary authority.
Amy Holmes
BBC political reporter, Buckinghamshire
We are not far off hearing the results for Buckinghamshire Council at Stoke Mandeville Stadium, but a couple of Reform UK gains means it is an anxious wait for the Conservatives to see if they can hold on to full control of the council.
The Conservatives require another seven councillors to reach the majority figure of 49 seats - and there are just 10 councillors left to elect.
Currently, the Chalfont St Peter seat is also being recounted.
Simon Dedman
BBC political reporter
Current North Herts district councillor Alistair Willoughby has gained a seat for Labour by winning the Baldock & Letchworth East ward on Hertfordshire County Council, but overall his party has had a net loss of two seats and now has five councillors out of 78.
Willoughby recognises it is not the best time for his party.
He believes support for Reform has also taken votes from the Conservatives, which has lost 24 seats and now has 22.
"The results are the results and a win is a win," says Willoughby.
As the council now has no one party in overall control, he says there will be conversations now about who leads it.
Simon Dedman
BBC political reporter
Image source, Simon Dedman/BBCDaniel Allen is the Labour leader of North Hertfordshire Council - a district council which is not holding elections this year.
I was talking to him in Letchworth, where he is attending the county council count and where he after the party lost two seats across the whole of Hertfordshire
He said it wasn't the best result for his party. However, Labour did take the Baldock & Letchworth East and Hatfield North seats from the Conservatives, but they've lost three seats to Reform and one to the Lib Dems.
"People are disappointed and there's been a protest vote; we're not going to pretend things haven't been fantastic, but here in North Herts things have been, and we're still getting people voting for Labour," he said.
"We've got to hope that at county council level sensible voices cut through and the focus is on making sure that residents are supported."
Image source, Amy Holmes/BBCEarlier this room at Stoke Mandeville Stadium was lined with rows of empty chairs. Now, it is starting to fill up as the results for Buckinghamshire Council are coming in thick and fast.
There have been no elections for the unitary Milton Keynes City Council this week.
Image source, .Simon Dedman
BBC political reporter
Image source, Simon DedmanSteve Jarvis, the leader of the Liberal Democrats on Hertfordshire County Council tells me the increase in his party's seats is "substantial".
"The Conservatives have clearly lost the overall majority they have had on Hertfordshire county council for the last 26 years," he says.
"We will be the largest party in the new council and we need to make a start on setting out what we are going to do differently for Hertfordshire”.
Jarvis says that as the largest party "consequentially it seems likely I would be leader of the county council” but his Lib Dem group would have to decide to keep him as their leader.
Speaking at the end of the count in Letchworth, he says that with no one group having a majority there will be "some sort of discussions with other parties".
"I can see no circumstance under which we would have any sort of discussion with Reform. And I think people have just chucked the Conservatives out so I think it is difficult to see what part they would play," he says.
"Who else would play a part? I think that is a discussion that we would need to have both internally within the Liberal Democrat group on the council and with members of other groups."
Alex Pope
BBC News, Buckinghamshire
Image source, .BBCAll the seats have now been declared for Hertfordshire County Council.
The Liberal Democrats have overtaken the Conservatives - who lost 24 seats - and are now the biggest party on the council, but no party has overall control.
Simon Dedman
BBC political reporter
Image source, Simon Dedman/BBCPhil Bibby from the Conservative Party says he will not stand again as a Hertfordshire county councillor after losing his St Nicholas ward seat in Stevenage to Reform UK.
"Reform has built a real movement as a protest vote really and they have excelled themselves to achieve five out of six seats, they now need to deliver on their promises," he says.
Bibby says talking to people on the doorsteps he was told a Reform UK vote would be "a protest vote against the government, Conservatives and Labour".
He says while he remains a councillor at Stevenage Borough he will not stand for the county council again.
He said: "The Conservative Party really needs to establish themselves as a viable party again. It's going to take a lot of work."
Simon Dedman
BBC political reporter
It has not been the best day for Labour councillor Ellie Plater.
She has lost her Bedwell seat on Hertfordshire County Council, but will remain a borough councillor.
Image source, Simon Dedman/BBC"It's a shame. I would have loved to have continued my county council work, but I will continue as a borough councillor," she says.
"Congratulations to the Reform candidate and I hope they will find their feet and get stuck into work.
"I think people are struggling as they clearly want change and we've seen that today; we've seen that across the country.
"It's a democracy and people have spoken."
Image source, .As it stands, the Liberal Democrats are the largest party on Hertfordshire County Council, with 23 seats.
Up until today they had 22 seats.
The biggest winner is currently Reform UK, having had only one seat before, and now they have 12.
But the biggest losers seems to be the Tories who have had a majority of seats since 1999. Before Thursday's vote, they had 42 seats, but that has dramatically dropped to 13, with most of the 78 results in.
Nicola Haseler
BBC News, Hertfordshire
Image source, Nicola Haseler/BBCRichard Roberts is currently the leader of Hertfordshire County Council, but as it stands we don't know for how much longer, as his party have lost overall control of the authority.
"We've had this national protest which has rolled across Hertfordshire," he says.
"This has been a referendum of a national message coming from Reform."
At the moment we do not know who has the most seats but it is looking to be the Liberal Democrats.
"Democracy has spoken loudly today," Roberts (pictured) adds.
On the plus side for him, he's kept his seat in Kings Langley.
The results for Buckinghamshire have started to come in.
Earlier we reported that Booker & Cressex had been won by the Conservatives, and the party has now added a win in the Disraeli ward.
However, Independent candidate Mark Lawson Turner has won the Chiltern Villages ward.
Image source, .Nicola Haseler
BBC News, Hertfordshire
Image source, Niola Hasler/BBCChristopher Wright from Reform UK is celebrating his win in the Hemel St Paul’s seat on Hertfordshire County Council.
"I'm delighted I've been elected," he said.
He says he was hearing that people "wanted change" and that is what he intends to do.
One of his main priorities is to "look after children" in the area and help them and to also stop wasting money, within the council.
As the council looks likely to have no single party in charge he says he will work with others, but he does not expect a coalition "at this stage".
"It's a new dawn. We are winning seats and we are going to continue to win seats, and we will make a change,, he adds.
Image source, Nicola Haseler/BBCIt seems to be a good afternoon for Reform UK.
They have just won the two seats in Hemel St Paul’s and Hemel North West.
With results still to come in, no party can now reach the 40 councillors needed to get a majority and take control of Hertfordshire County Council.
It means the Conservatives have lost control for the first time since 1999.
Simon Dedman
BBC political reporter
Reform UK has picked up five county council seats in Stevenage taking four seats off the Conservatives and Labour’s only division of Bedwell. The Lib Dems held their one division of Chells.
Meanwhile in northern Hertfordshire, the results are coming in with the Conservatives continuing to lose ground, but to the Lib Dems and Labour.
The Lib Dems have won the Royston East & Ermine seat, and held the Royston West & Rural ward, and Hitchin South.
Image source, Simon Dedman/BBCLabour have won the two wards of Baldock and Letchworth East off the Conservatives, but the Tories have held Hitchin Rural.
Based on the results in so far, Hertfordshire County Council appears to be heading towards having no single party in overall control.
Nicola Haseler
BBC News, Hertfordshire
Image source, Nicola Haseler/BBCAndrew Williams has been a Conservative Hertfordshire county councillor for 38 years and was the leader of Dacorum Borough Council (covering Tring and Hemel Hempstead) for 24 years.
He tells me he has "seen a lot - the ups and downs from the 80s and 90s... electoral cycles they come and go".
"This is different, because it's not a two-party situation," he says."Clearly we're seeing a significant vote for Reform.
"It's difficult to work out if that's a protest vote against the two main parties; people are just not happy with our previous record and they're clearly not happy with the government.
"Even though it's only been 10 months [since Labour won the general election], they don't feel the government is delivering for them."
He says earlier results from Broxbourne, where the Conservatives lost two seats to Reform, was a "disappointing start".
He believes it could mean the county council could go from Conservative control to no overall control - meaning alliances will have to be formed to work out who will run the local authority.
Nicola Haseler
BBC News, Hertfordshire
In Hertfordshire, Reform UK has just told me they are about to take two seats in Hemel Hempstead and the one being contested by the Conservative county council leader Richard Roberts is "very tight".