It was an interesting night in Colchester as votes were counted.
All of the borough's council wards had seats up for grabs, with the fate of the council in the balance.
The elections took place on Thursday with the results announced in the early hours of Friday.
The Conservatives ended the night with 19 seats, four fewer than they started with.
The Lib Dems now have 14, gaining three, Labour has 13, after gaining two.
The Green Party gained their third seat on the council in one of the big results of the night.
The Highwoods Independents now have two seats on the council after Philip Oxford did not stand.
Here is how the night unfolded in eight pictures taken by our photographer Steve Brading.
The day marked Pam Donnelly’s first time as returning officer having taken over as chief executive from Adrian Pritchard.
The first ballot boxes arrived at 10.04pm, just four minutes after the polling station in Ipswich Road closed.
The votes were verified by 11.54pm and counting began.
We got our first result by 12.41am.
The first shock of the night came with the first result.
Council leader Paul Dundas lost his Stanway seat to the Lib Dem’s Tracy Arnold.
Tracy secured 1,302 votes to Tory Paul’s 907 votes.
There was another shock as Colchester cabinet member and Conservative councillor Simon Crow also lost his seat.
Green candidate Richard Kirkby-Taylor secured 1,420 votes to Simon’s 794.
It means the Green party now hold all three seats in the Castle ward.
There were Conservative holds in Lexden and Braiswick, Marks Tey and Layer, Prettygate and Rural North in quick succession.
Labour held the Greenstead seat with new candidate Molly Bloomfield.
Tina Bourne, who has been a Labour councillor in Greenstead for 20 years, did not seek re-election this year instead standing aside for new would-be councillors.
In the ward of New Town and Christ Church, there were seven candidates in the running following the death of Nick Cope in March. Incumbent Labour candidate Lorcan Whitehead did not stand.
It was a good result for Labour holding their seat and gaining the other.
Paul Smith, the former leader of the council who lost his seat in 2018, is back on the council.
He claimed the St Anne’s and St John’s ward with 1,478 votes.
There was also a win in Shrub End for Lib Dem candidate Mick Spindler.
And Labour made a gain in Highwoods with Jocelyn Law claiming 833 votes.
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