Shops and schools, along with 6,500 new homes, are due to be built at Waterbeach.

An organisation which supports businesses says "creative ideas" were needed to help the high street.

The burial site found near an Aldi supermarket in Southend was compared to Tutankhamun's tomb.

An Anglo-Saxon royal whose tomb was found next to a road in 2003 may have finally been identified.

MP Vicky Ford said national frustration with Brexit had hit the Conservative vote in Essex.

The Conservatives lose two seats to Labour and one to the Liberal Democrats in Ipswich.

The Conservatives lose 19 seats on Uttlesford District Council in Essex.

The party wins 15 seats from the Conservatives to take control of the district council.

It’s been a good day to be a Green or Independent in Suffolk, and a bad day to be a Conservative leader.

The Greens and independents have torn through the majorities of the Conservatives at Mid Suffolk, Babergh and the new West Suffolk district councils taking some senior Tories down with them.

At West Suffolk, they are in control as they were at the two councils it has replaced - Forest Heath and St Edmundsbury.

However, in the process they lost three West Suffolk Conservative heavyweights - the former leader of Forest Heath James Waters, the former Suffolk County Council leader Colin Noble and West Suffolk Conservative Association chairman Lance Stansbury.

When asked why they thought they had not retained district council seats, they told me it was the failure to deliver Brexit and because of that their message about local issues weren’t getting through.

Babergh and Mid Suffolk Tories didn’t even manage to keep hold of their councils. They have now gone to no overcall control with the Greens taking the share of the gains, but it was an independent who managed to unseat the Mid Suffolk Conservative leader Nick Gowrley.

A different picture for the new East Suffolk Council where the Conservatives have retained their hold in the area formerly covered by Waveney and Suffolk Coastal councils where the merger has created the largest district council in the country by population.

The Conservatives didn’t get away completely unscathed though, they lost the ex-leader of Waveney District Council and Suffolk County Council Mark Bee - he lost his seat to the Greens.

The Conservatives were punished here in a county which had a majority of people vote to leave the EU.

Labour wasn’t punished - the party gained seats in Ipswich - the only Suffolk council it controls and they also have more seats on West Suffolk than they did on both Forest Heath and St Edmundsbury.

Protest vote, Brexit backlash or maybe the need for some new politics, who knows what voters were thinking?

What we can be sure of is that what they decided on will be a new era for politics at district level in Suffolk.

The outgoing Conservative leader of Uttlesford Distict Council, Stephen Rolfe, said their loss of the authority to a residents association was "part of the national picture".

They lost 17 seats, and control of the Saffron Waldon-based council, to the group Residents for Uttlesford.

Image source, Uttlesford Distict Council

Mr Rolfe, who lost his Ashdon seat, said the loss was "essentially" about Brexit.

He said voters in north west Essex had told him they were "fed up" with the main parties' handling of the issue, with some telling him they would "never vote Conservative again".

At the newly-formed East Suffolk Council, external the Conservatives dominated the first election building a majority of 23 over all other parties.

Labour and Conservatives lost out and the result is an overall council of 39 Conservatives, seven Labour members, four Greens, three Lib Dems and two independents.

This was the first election for the new council which has been formed from a merger of Waveney District Council and Suffolk Coastal District Council.

Both defunct councils were controlled by the Conservatives before the merger, which sees one district council covering the Suffolk coast from Lowestoft to Feilxstowe.

The Conservatives lost 11 seats in Broadland District Council , externalbut will still retain control with a majority of 17.

The Lib Dems gained eight seats, Labour two and there is one new independent councillor.

The overall picture now is Conservatives 32, Lib Dems 12, Labour two and the one independent.

The Conservatives lost four seats at South Norfolk Council, external with the Lib Dems claiming three and Labour one.

The council now comprises 35 Conservatives, 10 Lib Dems and one Labour member.

The election was almost marred by the closure of one regular village polling station but the stalwart voters made their way to an alternative centre two miles away.

Marie Francis, vice-chairman of Saxlingham Parish Council, said: "Closing the [village] polling station is a significant infringement of the democrat rights of more than 600 residents.

"We strongly feel that the rights of rural people to vote democratically should be upheld.

"The parish council feels so strongly it now has a lawyer who is preparing an appeal to the Electoral Commission."

The polling station in the village church had been double booked with a nursery group.

Fenland District Council, external, where a quarter of its seats were uncontested, remains in Tory control, despite the party losing eight seats.

The Conservatives defended 34 seats at the Cambridgeshire council, winning 26. while independents won 10 seats, a gain of seven.

The Green Party's Simon Wilkes ousted long-serving Tory Kit Owen to win the party's only seat.

There were significant gains for the Liberal Democrats at East Cambridgeshire District Council, external, where they won 11 seats from the Conservatives and ousted the council's only independent member.

However, it was not enough to oust the ruling Tories.

The Conservatives retained 15 of the council's 28 seats.

The Lib Dems now hold 13 seats, up massively from the last round of local elections when they had just one councillor.

The Tories lost three seats to Labour, one to the Lib Dems and one to the Greens.

The founder of the independent group Residents for Uttlesford, which has taken control of Uttlesford District Council, external, said that only in his "wildest dreams" did he think they would win.

The group took control of the council in Saffron Walden, Essex, winning 17 seats from the Conservatives, giving them 26 out of 39 seats overall.

John Lodge, who represents the party in the Saffron Walden Shire ward said he was "very thrilled, a little bit humble and little bit frightened".

Image source, Uttlesford District Council

He said is showed "considerable disenchantment with the [previous] administration".

Mr Lodge, who founded the party in 2013, admitted that the national picture of the main parties losing seats was reflected in Essex, but their win was a "local phenomenon".

He said their party did not talk about Brexit but focused on local politics, and that their election was an endorsement on what they had done in opposition, and leading Saffron Walden Town Council.

Mr Lodge said he would celebrate tonight, "but I'll be working on Bank Holiday Monday setting up the new council".

The Green Party reduced the massive Labour hold on Norwich City Council, external slightly by winning four more seats.

The representation of the 39 seats is now:

• Labour 27
• Green Party 9
• Lib Dems 3

The success of the Green Party and the emerging national election results picture brought a reaction from Labour's Norwich South MP Clive Lewis.

He said the party was being dragged in four different directions.

"We've got customs union, hard Brexit, revoke and the people's vote," he said.

"If we don't sort ourselves out the head is going to pop off and the four horses are going to gallop off in four different directions elsewhere."

Andrew Sinclair
BBC Look East political correspondent

For the last few weeks, it's been clear from the stories coming from canvassers that voters are frustrated and angry.

Some want Brexit to happen quickly, others would still like it reversed, but the overwhelming mood was a sense of annoyance that because the main parties can't agree, all other politics has come to a halt.

And that's why people voted in large numbers for candidates who were not from the main national parties..

And if an independent or candidate from their preferred party wasn't standing, they either stayed at home or they spoilt their ballot paper.

The Conservatives are still the largest party in the BBC East region, but they are diminished.

And Labour may not have been punished as hard, but making so few gains in our region after nine years of Conservative government does not auger well for a general election.

The big winners were the Lib Dems. After eight years of haemorrhaging votes in local elections, they made serious gains and are once again big players in the politics of the region.

Labour and the Tories hope this election has been a nasty one-off.

But voters are disillusioned and weary.

It may take time to win them back.

One elector's vote at Mid Suffolk District Council, external was the difference for one Conservative councillor, but his party has lost control of the local authority leaving no single party in overall control.

The Conservatives have lost seven seats and now hold 16, with the Greens on 12, the Lib Dems five and one independent.

That independent - Gerard Brewster - had sat in the council's cabinet with the Conservatives and he is expected to side with them again.

If the Greens and Lib Dems unite, both sides would end up with 17 seats each.

The St Peter's (Stowmarket) ward was decided in favour of the Tories whose candidate Paul Ekpenyong had 282 votes, compared to the 281 polled by the Lib Dems' David Child.

Conservative council leader Nick Gowrley lost his seat to the Lib Dems and the Conservatives' former Suffolk County Council deputy leader Jane Storey also failed to hold her seat.