BBC Radio Shropshire

It looks like another senior Conservative councillor in Shropshire is facing a close battle to keep his seat at Shirehall.

But deputy leader Steve Charmley will have to wait until tomorrow for the result from the Whittington ward, so it's still early days there.

The Green Party has been doing well in the Malvern seats on Worcestershire County Council, gaining one seat and increasing its vote in another.

Martin Allen took the Croome ward from the Conservatives and said afterwards he was "absolutely staggered" by the result.

The Conservatives might have been pleased to add an extra 179 votes there, but they were blown away by Mr Allen, who added 1,609 on the number of Green votes in the last election.

And Natalie McVey saw her vote increase by 50% to 1,451, giving her a comfortable win with roughly double the number of votes her Conservative challenger received.

The majority of seats declared at the Coventry election count so far, have all been held by the Labour incumbents.

Image source, Coventry City Council

However one Conservative gain has been made in Sherbourne ward by Ryan Simpson.

Hannah Griffiths
BBC CWR

The counts at Coventry should be starting to trickle in soon.

Turnout is 32% overall for these elections.

Postal votes were up by 59% and I’m told 900 litres of hand sanitiser were ordered for this count.

Monica Rimmer
BBC News

A lot has happened since 06:00 this morning, so let's run you through the big stories of the day so far:

• The first council to declare was in Redditch - there the Conservatives took all the contested seats - something council leader Matt Dormer said he was "ecstatic" about. His opponent, Bill Hartnett, said he felt people had voted on national issues.

• The Conservatives also took control of Nuneaton and Bedworth council - the first time they've been in full control since the 2008 election. As you can see, they were pretty happy about that...

• It was also a good night for the Tories in Dudley, who took control of the council - they gained 12 seats and Labour lost 11. Council leader Patrick Harley said it was "a great night for the Conservative party in Dudley". His opposition Qadar Zada said Labour needed to "go away and understand" why the party didn't get support from voters.

• Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited the patch earlier and said it was "early days" but there had been a "very encouraging set of results so far".

• Labour kept hold of both Wolverhampton and Sandwell council.

• Over in Worcestershire, the Tories look to be on track in keeping their majority.

• More councils across West Midlands will declare results later today and the West Midlands mayoral results are due on Saturday.

Local Democracy Reporting Service
Keri Trigg

A Labour candidate in the Shropshire Council elections says she could have missed out on votes because her name was printed incorrectly on the ballot papers.

Elisabeth Roberts is standing in Harlescott division, which has consistently voted Labour at every election since the council was formed in 2009.

Ms Roberts said she put Lisa on her nomination forms - as a name she is also known as - but did not intend for this to be the name on the ballot papers.

When her name appeared as Lisa on the Statement of Persons Nominated, published four weeks ago, she said she contacted the council multiple times to get it corrected. So she said she was shocked to see it on the ballot papers.

Shropshire Council has been asked to comment.

Birmingham City Council says it is still on track to give its election results later this afternoon.

Meanwhile a by-election in the Oscott ward has seen a gain for the Tories.

Sophie Calvert
Political Reporter, BBC Radio Stoke

Away from the council elections, counting is now starting in the race for Staffordshire's Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner.

Burton Town Hall is the venue for the declaration which will be this afternoon.

Matthew Ellis, Conservative, has held the role since its creation in 2012 - but he is stepping down.

PFCC turnout for this election across the county is 29%.

James Pearson
Political reporter, BBC Radio Hereford & Worcester

Thirteen out of 57 results are in for the Worcestershire County Council elections.

So far the Conservatives are on course to hold on to their majority, but overall they are down one seat on their 2017 performance.

Despite winning a seat from the Independents in Alvechurch, they've lost Malvern Chase to the Lib Dems, and surprisingly Croome to the Greens.

While Labour have been heavily hit, especially in Redditch's district elections, elsewhere the Greens and the Lib Dems have done well.

The Conservatives have enjoyed a strong grip on Shropshire Council since the unitary authority was created, but could their leader be at risk?

BBC Radio Shropshire's Political Reporter Joanne Gallagher is reporting there is some nervousness that Peter Nutting could lose his seat to the Lib Dems.

The first results for Shropshire Council are expected this evening and the full picture won't be known until tomorrow.

Steve Hermon
Journalist, BBC Radio WM

Out of the 22 seats declared today, Labour has claimed 14 of them, taking their overall number of councillors to 44.

The Conservatives have made five gains, compared with 2019, but are still well short of challenging. They have 15 councillors overall.

There's also one independent.

Laura Chiverton
BBC Radio WM

All results are now in for Sandwell with the Conservatives taking eight seats from Labour, but control of the council stays with Labour.

Labour have retained control of City of Wolverhampton Council.

However, the Conservatives have made gains in five wards.

Counting is about to get under way in Solihull, with results expected later this afternoon or early evening.

We'll keep you up to date on progress there as individual wards are declared.

Boris Johnson says it is "early days" after Thursday’s elections but there has been a "very encouraging set of results so far".

We'll have to wait until tomorrow for some results, including those for the West Midlands regional mayor and the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner.

But with the way things have been going so far, the MP for Dudley South Mike Wood is confident his Conservative Party will win both.

He said: "I think there's a very good chance that we manage to get Andy Street re-elected and Jay Singh-Sohal as the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner."

Image source, UK Parliament

Reflecting on his party taking control of Dudley Council, Mr Wood said: "These people don't recognise the Labour Party representing them any more and increasingly they're turning to Conservative candidates and the Conservative Party that will work to pursue their interests."

A reminder that these elections were postponed last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

That means many of the seats up for grabs were last up for election in May 2016, just weeks before Britain's EU referendum vote.

Sir John Curtice, professor of politics at Strathclyde University, has said many of the Conservative gains across the country today demonstrated how the party was gaining support in areas which voted for Brexit.

He said there was a debate over whether the party could win back Leave-supporting, working class voters by "ignoring Brexit as it has done for the past 12 months".

In Dudley, 67.6% of people voted to leave the EU and across the West Midlands 59.3% backed Brexit - more than any other region in England.

Counting is under way in Wolverhampton and so far the majority of wards have gone Labour's way and with only 22 seats up for election, they were never in any real danger of losing control.

That authority has now been confirmed as a hold for Labour.

Votes are also being counted in Sandwell, where huge marquees been set up at Sandwell Country Park while the usual venue at Tipton Sports Academy is used as a vaccination centre.

The Conservatives have made a couple of early gains there and turnout this year is 29.5%, up on 24.6% in 2019.

We've heard from Boris Johnson for the first time today since the election results started coming in.

Speaking to reporters in the West Midlands, the prime minister said it's "early days," but the results so far have been "very promising" for the Conservatives.

He added that the government had been trying to deliver on the "people's priorities" and had been "focusing on the pandemic as much as we can".

The first results are starting to come in from other local authority elections now and on Worcestershire Council we know the Conservatives have held on to four seats so far.

That includes the Evesham ward, where the Green Party quadrupled its vote to come second, missing out by just under 300 votes.

There has also been one gain for the Liberal Democrats, who took the Malvern Chase ward from the Conservatives.