Election 2013: UKIP wins first seats in Cornwall

The Liberal Democrats were the largest winners in the election, gaining 36 out of 123 seats

UKIP has won its first six seats on Cornwall Council.

However, the Liberal Democrats were ahead in the number of seats on the 123-seat authority at 16:03 BST, winning 36.

Independents and the Conservatives were the next largest groups with 35 and 31 seats respectively. Cornish nationalists Mebyon Kernow have four.

Independent Collin Brewer, who quit after saying disabled children should be "put down", has been re-elected.

Mr Brewer, 68, won the Wadebridge East ward as an independent candidate with a majority of four votes.

'The people decided'

UKIP's wins include: Lynher, Newquay Treviglas, Four Lanes, two seats in Camborne; and the ward of Mabe, Perranarworthal and St Gluvias.

Mark Hicks, who took the Newquay seat, said: "We've had some bad words said about us.

"We decided to let the electorate speak, and I think the people decided."

Labour have taken six seats, the Labour and Co-operative Party took two, and candidates declared as "unspecified" also took two.

The Greens have taken one seat in St Ives.

In Cornwall, 480 candidates were fighting for 123 seats in 122 wards in an election that was last held in 2009.

Votes cast in the west of the county are being counted at Carn Bea Leisure Centre, and east Cornwall's votes at the Royal Cornwall Showground in Wadebridge.

On the Isles of Scilly, results are in for St Mary's and St Martin's where 15 of the 21 council seats were up for grabs on the islands' unitary authority.

Independent Steve Sims topped the poll on the biggest island, St Mary's, having never been a councillor before, and not standing since 1999.

Two Green Party candidates failed to win seats. Bryher, St Agnes and Tresco have yet to declare their results.