No overall party is in overall control of Thanet District Council after the results were announced for the local elections today.

The Conservatives have the most seats but fell just short of a majority with Labour gaining 16 seats to put them in second place.

The Tories now have 25 councillors, with Labour on 20 and Thanet Independents third with seven seats.

But it was a groundbreaking day for the Green Party, which gained their first ever councillors in Thanet and taking three seats in total.

It was a slow start to the count, which started at 11.30am, with only four wards declared by 3pm but a flurry of results for the remaining 19 were announced in the following two hours.

First blood went to Labour as they took both seats in the first result declared - Newington ward - with Karen Constantine and Rick Everitt elected.

Council leader Bob Bayford (Con) retained his place on the council in Kingsgate ward with a comfortable majority of nearly double his Labour opponent, Richard Symonds.

Find out who has been voted in to Thanet District Council by following the live blog below.

Cllr Bayford says he is expecting it to be "one of the strangest elections" he's ever stood in adding he believes it "will be an interesting afternoon".

The turnout has been announced at 30.15% with 30,442 ballots cast out of a possible 100,969.

Counting got underway at the Margate Winter Gardens shortly after 11.30am with the count due to be finished by 5pm.

Ukip took control of the council in 2015, the first and so far only authority in the country to be run by the party, but a series of splits saw the party relinquish control to the Conservatives last year.

For all the results and reaction from across Kent follow our live blog and follow live updates from the Thanet count below.

LIVE UPDATE - refresh for latest details

5.51pm

Here is the makeup of the council now all seats have been declared.

5.29pm

You wait two hours and get barely two counts announced, then they all flood in at once. Here's the latest.

4.51pm

Results coming in thick and fast now. Here's what's happening.

3.45pm

There's been a flurry of results in the last half an hour or so with Labour and the Conservatives taking seats

3.10pm

We have some action on the stage and it's another win for Labour in Ramsgate

2.38pm

Results have started coming in for Thanet District Council. Here's the latest.

2pm

Everything has come to a grinding halt

Everything has come to a grinding halt

1.30pm

In other election news... police were called to a Thanet polling station yesterday

1.15pm

Results from the first three wards are in:

12.54pm

And we're off! First blood to Labour

12.42pm

All mod cons - expect to start seeing this fill up during the afternoon

12.29pm

Not much happening right now...

12.00pm

Just a 30% turnout - which is considerably lower than the 71% turnout for the district elections in 2015 which coincided with the General Election when former Ukip leader Nigel Farage famously lost out to Craig Mackinlay

11.30am

Counting is under way here at the Winter Gardens in Margate

6am

Results are expected this afternoon so stay tuned.