Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council has been left with no party in overall control.

Conservatives have won the most seats, but no one came out on top in the end.

Taking place at Larkfield Leisure Centre in Aylesford, the count started at 1.15pm and didn’t finish until just after 7pm.

There were multiple deliberations and recounts throughout the afternoon.

The final results saw the Tories win 20 seats, with the opposition obtaining 24.

Liberal Democrats won 11, with the Green Party grabbing eight, Labour three and the Independence Alliance UK taking two.

A big change this year for the borough is that the number of councillors have decreased from 54 to 44, as well as the number of wards being merged, dropping from 24 to 19.

Both local MPs Tom Tugendhat and Tracey Crouch arrived during the day to show support for their party.

Ms Crouch said: “I think that an MP going to support their candidates is a really important thing.

“Often people vote for very personal reasons – it could be as simple as a pothole on their street that hasn’t been fixed.

“I was at the Medway Council count last night until 1.30am, so I think it’s important to also be here today.”

Before the results, KentOnline spoke to the leader of the council Matt Boughton (Con), who said it had been a “difficult night” for his party.

He commented: "We've had a lot of issues go against us nationally and we've tried our very best in the campaign, whether that will be enough I'm not sure, but I'm really just proud of the team at the moment and anyone that has put themselves forward as a Conservative candidate this election deserves a lot of credit.

“I think there'll be some quite big differences from ward to ward as well.

“The other challenge here is we’ve got new boundaries – so that's taken away incumbency for a lot of councillors and actually made life much trickier for us as it always does for party that is currently in a majority position, whenever there's boundary changes irrespective of whether it's a good year for you or not.”

The leader himself managed to keep his seat for East Peckham, West Peckham, Mereworth and Wateringbury ward, alongside Conservative candidate Sarah Anne Hudson.​

Another who held his place was Cllr Mark Hood (Green), who recieved 1,633 votes for the Judd ward.

He said there was a “fine margin’, with results looking very mixed.

“Reducing the number of councillors and redrawing the wards is like moving furniture around in the same living room – just less pieces,” he added.

“I’m not sure its going to make a huge amount of difference, but it will mean that some established councillors will find themselves in a unfamiliar ward.”

Voter turnout came to 35,317 out of 98,693 – an overall 35.78%.

Reflecting on the final outcome, Mr Boughton said: "It was disappointing, but not surprising, that Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council has gone into No Overall Control.

‘Some excellent Conservative Councillors have lost their seats through no fault of their own.’

“With a very difficult national picture for the Conservative Party and other contributing factors, including changes to ward boundaries reducing councillors incumbency, we always expected the election to be tricky.

"Some excellent Conservative Councillors have lost their seats through no fault of their own. We had a extremely strong set of candidates across every seat who worked incredibly hard and it is sad we don't have a bigger group.

“I'm so proud of the work they put in for their seats and sorry for all those who were not elected.

“However, by a significant margin the Conservatives remain the largest party on the council. We are considering working with like-minded groups to form a stable administration for the next four years."

The next administration will be elected at the first meeting of the new council, which takes place next Wednesday (May 17).

For a full breakdown of the votes click here.

The councilors elected by ward are:

Aylesford North and North Downs: Alex McDermott (Con) - 737 votes, Dave Davis (Con) - 909 votes and Roger William Dalton (Con) - 953 votes.

Aylesford South and Ditton: Rob Cannon (Con) - 975 votes, Steve Hammond (Con) - 1,132 votes and Colin John Williams (Con) - 975 votes.

Birling, Leybourne and Ryarsh: Bill Banks (Lib) - 870 votes and Paul Andrew Boxall (Lib) - 957 votes.

Borough Green and Platt: Wendy Elizabeth Palmer (Ind Alliance) - 1,199 votes and Mike Taylor (Ind Alliance) - 1,233 votes.

Bourne: Steve Crisp (Green) - 761 votes and James Roger Starling Lark (Con) - 730 votes.

Cage Green and Angel: Anna Victoria Cope (Green) - 1,828 votes, Robert William George Oliver (Green) - 1,737 votes and Bethan Alexandra Parry (Green) - 1,639 votes.

East Malling, West Malling and Offham: Trudy Dean (Lib) - 1,831 votes, Roger Vincent Roud (Lib) - 1,620 votes and Michelle Tatton (Lib) - 1,598 votes.

East Peckham, West Peckham, Mereworth and Wateringbury: Matt Boughton (Con) - 1,201 votes and Sarah Anne Hudson (Con) - 1,260 votes.

Higham: Lee Athwal (Green) - 1,240 votes and Dennis William King (Con) - 1,106 votes.

Hildenborough: Kath Barton (Green) - 928 votes and Mark Russell Rhodes (Con) - 1,011 votes.

Judd: George Benjamin Hines (Green) - 1,562 votes and Mark Antony James Hood (Green) - 1,633 votes.

Kings Hill: Christopher Brown (Con) - 1,048 votes, Dan Harman (Con) - 1,085 votes and Kim Bonita Tanner (Con) - 1,047 votes.

Larkfield: Timothy Bishop (Lib) - 1,372 votes, Anita Sandra Oakley (Lib) - 1,385 votes and David Thornewell (Lib) - 1,401 votes.

Pilgrims with Ightham: Robin Patrick Betts (Con) - 987 votes and Martin Andrew Coffin (Con) - 934 votes.

Snodland East and Ham Hill: Sue Bell (Con) - 445 votes and Wayne John Mallard (Lab) - 487 votes.

Snodland West and Holborough Lakes: Angus Graeme Bennison (Lab) - 638 votes and Paul Michael Hickmott (Lab) - 755 votes.

Trench: Adem Mehmet (Con) - 735 votes and Keith Simon Tunstall (Con) - 726 votes.

Vauxhall: Garry Christopher Bridge (Lib) - 1,306 votes, James Anthony Clokey (Lib) - 1,275 votes and Frances Annabel Hoskins (Lib) - 1,487 votes.

Walderslade: Des Keers (Con) - 544 votes.