It has just gone 02:30 BST in the morning here in London - let's have a quick look at the state-of-play at this very early stage.

So far, we have had 12 councils declare results - only one has changed control.

We still have another 95 other local authorities to declare so stay with us as we continue to bring you the results.

Image source, .

Nine of the 17 seats up for election have been declared in Colchester, which is enough to ensure it will remain under no overall control.

The Tories were the largest party going into tonight, and just one seat has changed hands so far.

Image source, .

Another result confirmed, with Labour keeping control of Gateshead after winning the first two seats to be declared.

Image source, .

Image source, .

Another result is in - and it is a key one for Labour and the Tories.

Labour has gained control of Hartlepool Council from no overall control. Against a backdrop of favourable national polling, combined with the party being only two seats away from a majority going into tonight, it is not a huge surprise.

But Sir Keir Starmer will be delighted with the result and the shift in opinion it signifies.

Three years ago, Labour infamously lost a parliamentary by-election in Hartlepool to Boris Johnson's Conservatives, as the Tories also gained several council seats.

The Liberal Democrats have held Eastleigh Borough Council in Hampshire.

Image source, .

Another result to bring you this time from Suffolk.

Labour have retained control of Ipswich Borough Council.

Image source, .

Paul Burnell
BBC News

Image source, PA Media

Nobody in Blackpool is expecting local boy Chris Webb to lose this by-election after the exit of the previous MP following a lobbying scandal.

Webb's literature and posters proclaim "Blackpool born and bred - if he wins he would be the first local candidate to hold the seat which was created in 1945.

The 1997 Blair landslide saw Gordon Marsden the Editor of History today make his own piece of parliamentary history by becoming the first Labour MP for Blackpool South.

Marsden held the seat until the last election where the heavily leave voting seat gave Tory Scott Benton a Brexit bounce.

Webb, the son of a postman and a teaching assistant, has a strong connection to the voluntary sector.

His previous political posts include working for the late Labour MP for Rochdale Tony Lloyd and a stint as deputy police and crime commissioner in Lancashire.

Helen Catt
Political correspondent

Progress at the Blackpool South count has been slow.

But they have now started the count, having previously been verifying the parliamentary ballot papers.

A result isn’t expected here until at least 3am, possibly later.

If you are just joining our coverage, let's just recap the flurry of early results we have had so far.

No council has changed hands yet; Labour remains in control of councils in the Northumberland, Wearside and Lancashire.

In Waltham Cross, the Conservatives have held Broxbourrne Borough Council, and Rochford District Council remains in no overall control.

Image source, .

Kevin Fitzpatrick
BBC Radio Manchester

Oldham is on a knife edge for Labour where just one lost seat could cost Labour overall control.

Two councillors resigned from the party on the eve of nominations over the party's stance on Gaza.

Like some other councils in the north west it has lost support in areas with a large Muslim community.

Sharon Edwards
Political Reporter, BBC Radio Lincolnshire

Labour is confident of gaining seats on the City of Lincoln Council, which it already controls, from the Tories. Cllr Chris Burke, a Labour stalwart, says they expect to gain three of the five seats the Conservatives are defending.

They are less confident in the race for the wider county's police and crime commissioner. Lincolnshire is often referred to as a "true blue" county and all of its MPs are Conservative.

Conservative Marc Jones is defending. His supporters are nervous of a high Labour vote in Lincoln and a low turnout across the rest of the county.

Labour has retained control in South Tyneside, with 15 of the 18 seats up for election now declared. However the party has lost eight seats to independent candidates, so its majority will be reduced.

Image source, .

Labour has held Newcastle-upon-Tyne, with 15 out of 27 wards declared.

Image source, .

Labour has held Chorley in Lancashire.

It held 37 of the council's 42 seats going into yesterday - and only 14 seats were up for grabs.

Image source, .

Another result in - Rochford in Essex remains under no overall control.

The council was previously run by a joint administration of independents, Greens and the Liberal Democrats.

Image source, .

As we reported just now, the Conservatives held Broxbourne in Hertfordshire. They retained all nine seats they were defending, with Labour holding the other.

But delve deeper, and the vote share change throws up some interesting trends. The Tories lost 13% of their vote from three years ago, and the main beneficiaries of that were the Greens, rather than Labour.

The Greens have also gained two seats in Newcastle-upon-Tyne from Labour so far, with counts there still ongoing.

Image source, .

Back to the results from Sunderland now, and Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris says the results in that area show "if you vote Reform, you get Labour".

He tells the BBC: "It's a very straightforward equation for people at the next general election.

"If they want to vote Reform, they'll end up with Labour MPs, and they'll end up with a Labour government, and then they'll end up, probably, with everything they didn't want to vote for based on the profile of Reform voters."

Our second result of the night is in. The Conservatives have retained control of Broxbourne, as the first results in the seat filter through.

There was never a danger of the party losing control as it held 27 of the 30 seats, and only 10 are up for election.

Image source, .

Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent

While the results have not officially been declared, the Labour Party is saying that they have won Hartlepool Council.

Entering the night the council was under no overall control, with Labour two councillors away from a majority.

Hartlepool has a particular emotional resonance for Labour at this set of local elections. When they were last contested in 2021, not only did the Conservatives make major gains on Hartlepool Council, there was also a parliamentary by-election where the Conservatives won the seat from Labour. Afterwards Sir Keir Starmer contemplated resigning while Conservative MPs speculated that Boris Johnson would be prime minister for a decade.

This result – if it is as Labour claims – underscores how much politics has changed since 2021.

A Labour Party spokesperson said: “Winning back Hartlepool council is a groundbreaking moment after the disappointing results we saw here in 2021.

"Keir Starmer pledged to change the Labour Party after that result, and today’s win shows that this changed Labour Party is ready to deliver the change that communities like Hartlepool are crying out for.”

Reform UK's candidate in Blackpool South, Mark Butcher, says his party is "quietly confident of making a good showing" in the parliamentary by-election there.

The vote was triggered by the resignation of former Conservative MP Scott Benton, who was suspended from the party after being caught in a lobbying sting. He had a majority of 3,690 at the last election in 2019.

Butcher says second place behind Labour would be a "realistic" outcome although he insists he's "here to win it".

He says Reform is picking up support from both former Labour and Tory voters, who are "sick and tired of false promises".