Anna Whittaker
BBC political reporter, in Staffordshire

The Green Party have so far won one Staffordshire County Council seat, with Jack Rose claiming the Stafford West and Rural seat.

Their candidate for Hednesford North, Darrell Mawle, said his party would have needed a "dramatic result" to win its two target seats and any hope they had "dissipated quite quickly".

He said Reform were clearly sweeping the council and added: "A lot of people have voted for them and they want major change."

As well as the elections for Staffordshire County Council, we've had three by-elections.

There were two on Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, with Andrew Turnock victorious for the Conservatives in Loggerheads and Lynn Dean (pictured below) claiming Knutton for Reform UK.

Matthew Wallens won the one by-election on Lichfield District Council.

He took the Curborough ward for Reform UK.

The scale of some of these Reform UK wins in Staffordshire is just as impressive as the wins themselves.

Some of their wins were close, but others, in places like The Heaths, Burntwood North, Wilnecote and The Cotes/Two Rivers, were by more than 1,000 votes.

Tony Screen (pictured below) took Kidsgrove for Reform by 1,091 votes.

In four areas Reform received more than half the votes counted.

Where the Conservatives have held onto their seats, the wins were generally closer

Simon Tagg managed to win the Westlands, Thistleberry and Keele seat for the Conservatives by a comfortable 850 votes, but he was an exception.

Richard Holland managed to hold onto Lichfield Rural North by just 20 votes.

The results so far suggested "a massive rejection of the two-party system", the leader of the Conservative opposition on Stoke on Trent City Council, Dan Jellyman, said.

He said people cared more about things like "potholes in the streets, bin collections, and grass cutting" than clever political campaigns.

Reform UK's Staffordshire County coordinator, Martin Murray has said he is "ecstatic".

"We will deliver continuation of services without change," Murray, the new councillor for Cannock Town, said.

“We will do what is right for everybody. In time we will improve those services and give you better value for money.”

He said the new council leader has not yet been decided.

Ken Owen, chair of Reform UK in Newcastle-under-Lyme said, he thought voters were disillusioned with the other major parties.

"[It was] a remarkable night, not only for Reform UK candidates, but I think the people of Staffordshire have sent a message to the current sort of administration," he said.

He added: "Reform UK have got a strong team of people behind the scenes, and I'm sure we'll be talking about that over the next day or two."

Owen also said no decisions had yet been made about who might be appointed to key decisions within the council.

Reform UK have just taken the final votes they need to claim control of Staffordshire County Council.

There are still more results to announce, but they now have 34 council seats and they needed 32 to take control.

It's quite a result, because they went into this election with no councillors and the Conservatives held 53 of the 62 seats.

Nigel Farage is expected to make an appearance in Staffordshire later today, to meet successful Reform UK candidates.

The Tories were utterly dominant on Staffordshire County Council going in to the election.

They held 53 of the 62 seats on the authority, with five for Labour (including Labour & Co-operative councillors), and four Independents.

No sign of the Liberal Democrats, the Greens or, of course, Reform UK, which barely stood any candidates at the last election.

We've just heard Reform have also claimed the Burton South, Stretton and Uttoxeter Rural wards.

That brings them within three of claiming control of the council.

Chloe Hughes
BBC News

We had a lot of Your Voice Your Vote submissions from voters, telling us that they wanted their local councils to “stop the boats” or tackle illegal immigration.

However, county councillors do not have control over these issues.

Immigration Enforcement, external (IE) and Border Force, external are areas of the Home Office that deal with different parts of immigration.

Sometimes, there is confusion between those who enter the UK illegally, refugees, and asylum seekers – they are different.

Refugees are people forced to flee their own country, external and seek safety in another country.

Asylum seekers, external are those seeking international protection, their request for refugee status has yet to be processed or they may not have applied yet.

Image source, bbc

Reform UK are now just six votes away from taking control of Staffordshire County Council.

Neil Parton was declared winner of the Brereton and Ravenhill Ward.

He finished ahead of Labour's David Williams by 746 votes.

And Reece Mandry won the Hawks Green, Rawnsley and Cannock Wood ward.

The first wave of results are in, but we still have more to come and the verification of ballot papers in Cannock and Stafford started earlier.

The story so far this morning has been Reform UK winning seat after seat on Staffordshire County Council and they are close to taking overall control.

So far they have won 24 of the 30 seats declared, with the Conservatives holding onto the remaining six.

Council leader Alan White was among the high profile losses for the Conservatives, losing his Lichfield Rural East seat to Reform.

Reform needs just eight more to to take overall control of the council with 32 still to be declared at counts across Cannock Chase, East Staffordshire, Stafford and the Staffordshire Moorlands.

Andy Giddings
BBC News

Hello and welcome to our coverage of the Staffordshire County Council election results as Reform UK look on course to take control of the authority.

We will be hearing from our reporters at today's counts and the winners and losers as the results are declared.

Although it is the county authority which is being elected, the elections are organised by each of the eight borough and district councils which make up the area.

It might be the last time that happens, with the government pushing authorities to move to unitary councils - where counties and districts merge into a single layer.