Sophie Calvert
Political Reporter, BBC Radio Stoke

The Conservatives in Stoke-on-Trent have gained a seat, external.

The Moorcroft ward area hasn't had a councillor for a year after former council and Labour group leader Mohammed Pervez stood down in May 2020.

Tariq Mahmood has won the by-election by a small margin of 67 votes.

No change at the top of the council - the Tories maintain a majority on the council.

The new leader of Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council has said his administration has got "massive work" to take on for the regeneration of both Nuneaton and Bedworth town centres.

Kris Wilson also said he wanted to review the local development plan for the area, which he said was "deeply unfair on many of our communities".

The Conservatives took 11 seats to gain overall control of the council for the first time since 2008 and he added: "I think people have started to see this Labour administration for what it is."

BBC Radio Shropshire

The leader of the Conservatives on Telford and Wrekin Council, Nigel Dugmore, has said the party's victory in the Donnington by-election was down to "local issues".

He said: "We spoke to local people about local issues and focused on what we could do for the people of Donnington."

But the leader of the Labour group, Shaun Davies, disagreed and instead blamed national trends.

He said: "We just weren't able to defend it from the national trend that the Labour Party is seeing right across the country and the region."

Image source, Telford and Wrekin Council

Mr Dugmore also said he saw the Donnington win as "a vote of no confidence in the leadership of Shaun Davies."

However, Mr Davies called the margin of defeat, by 193 votes, "a good result for us in the circumstances," given the national trend.

The former Labour MP for Worcester has defended party leader Sir Keir Starmer in the face of heavy Labour losses in local elections and the Hartlepool by-election.

"There's no way we should even consider a leadership challenge, that's ridiculous," Mike Foster said.

He said he felt the results were more of a reflection on the previous leadership and what he described as "long-Corbyn" - an "alienation between traditional Labour voters and the leadership".

Mr Foster, who was first elected in Tony Blair's landslide election in 1997 believes Sir Keir needed to be bolder with the party now.

"He's said it's under new management, now's the time to put the management policies into place and prove it," he said.

BBC Radio Hereford and Worcester

The former Labour group leader on Redditch Borough Council, who was one of seven members of the party to lose their seat, said: "I think both sides were shocked at the results, they were staggering results".

Bill Hartnett said he felt people had voted on national issues and added: "It's no reflection on the local party or the local candidates, we had a good manifesto I felt."

Mr Hartnett has served on the county and borough councils since 1985 and said it was a "strange election with Covid conditions" and felt the rollout of the vaccine had swung voters towards the Conservatives at a national level."I think as more and more results come through in later in the day, when they do more counts, I think the same pattern will follow," he added.

The Labour leader of Dudley council, Councillor Qadar Zada, has said the party need to "go away and understand" why it didn't get the support in the election.

Some counting is still left to do, but the Tories will have overall control.

BBC Radio Hereford and Worcester

The Conservative leader of Redditch Borough Council, Matt Dormer, has said he's "ecstatic" and "over the moon" at their election gains last night, which extended their majority to 14.

His party won all nine seats up for grabs, including seven they took from Labour.

One of the Labour candidates to lose their place on the council was group leader Bill Hartnett. Mr Dormer said: "We've lost some really good people last night, but the faith that they've now put in us we've got to repay."

Mr Dormer also said: "We haven't just crawled across the line or limped over with a small majority, we've got some really. really convincing majorities in some of these seats."

All the results from Dudley are now in and the final tally is 46 seats for the Conservatives, 24 for Labour and two independents.

A reminder that until last night the council was under no overall control. That changed with the Tories clinching a strong majority.

In the end, Labour lost 11 seats on the council and the Conservatives gained 12.

The final gain by the Tories was a seat won by UKIP in 2019.

Councillor Qadar Zada, the leader of the Labour group said afterwards the coronavirus pandemic had been a factor and that "talking to the public at this time about politics isn't the right thing to do".

But he also said he wouldn't make excuses and would reflect on the results.

Stephanie Miskin
BBC News, West Midlands

Public transport is a lifeline for people who don't have any other means of getting to work or seeing friends and family, making how much councils spend on supporting bus routes a key issue in the elections.

In the West Midlands, bus journeys have dropped 25% across the region in the past decade.

These young voters - and bus users - told me what they want councils to prioritise.

Image source, Ruby Ferrier Jones

One moment Ruby Ferrier Jones was back-packing around Australia, the next she was back at her parents' home in rural Shropshire after the coronavirus pandemic cut her dream trip short.

"Bishop's Castle is very rural, there's very limited public transport and where my parents live is outside of the actual little town. So again it's another layer of being disconnected," she said.

Image source, Jack Spawton-Rice

Meanwhile over in Coventry, Jack Spawton-Rice relies on buses throughout the day every day as part of his job as an adolescent support worker in Coventry.

"Buses being late happens quite a lot. And for families it can be an experience that sometimes can [cause] anxiety," he said.

Read more of their stories here.

"This is a great night for the Conservative Party in Dudley" - the words from the Conservative group leader in Dudley.

"We appear to be sweeping the boards gaining seat after seat, but not just scraping through, but getting fantastic majorities," Councillor Patrick Harley told the BBC.

"It's a total rejection of the Labour party from the people of Dudley.

"Our programme of regeneration and trying to rebuild this borough and make it better is connecting with the people of the borough."

Boris Johnson visited the region on Wednesday to show his support for the region's Conservative mayoral candidate Andy Street.

Mr Johnson joined the current mayor, who is seeking re-election, on one of the region's cycle-for-hire bikes which he said "looked very familiar".

Image source, PA Media

Later that day Sir Keir Starmer was in Birmingham supporting his party's candidate in the mayoral election, Liam Byrne.

He spoke to students and asked them how they'd been coping with the pandemic.

We're not expecting the results of the mayor position until Saturday.

Image source, PA Media

In case you missed this on Thursday, one of the highlights of polling day is the flurry of cute dog pictures on social media.

Here is Boswell, being a very good boy, outside a polling station in Birmingham.

If Boswell isn't enough cuteness for you, there are more pooches at polling stations here.

We'll be bringing you all the latest results right here, but if you want to check out what it means for your area, take a look at our postcode result tool.

You can find that by tapping this link.

Rob Mayor
Political reporter, BBC Radio WM

More results are still to come but the Tories have enough for a majority.

They've taken nine seats from Labour so far, with more counting still to do.

The Conservatives have gained control of Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council from Labour.

The Tories took 10 seats from Labour and one from an independent to give them control of the authority.

Our reporter Ben Godfrey says the Conservatives have secured an overall majority of Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council.

If you found yourself standing in a queue to vote because of social distancing measures, well it may not surprise you the virus could have an impact on how long it takes to get the results too.

Things looks quite different inside the counts this year with restrictions in place about how many people can be inside, so it will take longer to count the ballots.

Waiting and elections go hand in hand - it is all part of the excitement - but we may need to hold our breath for a little longer this year.

The BBC has a very handy tool for following the results in your area.

The Conservatives on Telford and Wrekin Council have taken the Donnington Ward from Labour.

The seat was up following the death of Liz Clare.

Jay Gough has been elected for the Tories.

The other borough by-election, in Dawley and Aqueduct, was a Labour hold - Ian Preece won the seat in that ward.

Elizabeth Glinka
Political Editor, BBC Midlands

People in the West Midlands have been voting to elect a regional mayor.

Votes will be counted in the Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull and Walsall local authority areas.

But what exactly does the West Midlands mayor do?

BBC Midlands Today's Political Editor Elizabeth Glinka explains the role.