This morning I’m at the election count for the nine Newcastle seats on Staffordshire County Council. Counting is well underway and hopefully we shouldn’t have to wait too long for the first results...

And we have the first result, former Ukip councillor Derrick Huckfield has gained Keele, Knutton and Silverdale for the Conservatives, beating sitting Labour cllr Dave Jones 1,179 to 644

Another result: Tory Gill Burnett has retained her Kidsgrove seat, with a huge 1,938 votes. Labour’s Mike Stubbs came a distant second with 864. The Tories seem to be consolidating their domination of Newcastle

You can follow the election results from Newcastle as they happen on our live blog https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/stoke-on-trent-news/live-staffordshire-county-council-election-5389282

And you’ll be able to see all the results from across Staffordshire here: https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/stoke-on-trent-news/live-every-staffordshire-county-council-5388955

Stephen Sweeney has retained his Newcastle South seat for the Tories. It’s another easy hold, he got 1,958 votes with Labour’s Steph Talbot getting 1,129

Just had the turnout figure for the Newcastle county council seats: 31%