Victoria Scheer
in Barnsley

The votes are busily being counted here in Barnsley, though the first results not expected before about 14:30.

Meanwhile the council say the overall turnout figure is 49.66% - back in 2024 that figure was just 24.14.

Reform have taken two more seats in Sheffield - Richmond and Mosborough.

Elswhere the Greens have won in Burngreave and Broomhill and Sharrow Vale.

That's four seats for the Green Party and three for Reform so far and none for Labour.

The first results for Sheffield are in.

The Green Party's Maia Salman-Lord holds the City ward with a big majority, while Margaret Abbey has taken the Manor seat from Labour.

Meanwhile Reform UK have won in Southey, where Yvonne Sykes has ousted long-serving Labour councillor Jayne Dunn.

James Vincent
Yorkshire political editor

We're about to get underway with results in Sheffield with the first three seats declared.

A reminder that in Sheffield they're only electing a third of the council so there are fewer votes to count

Simon Thake
in Sheffield

We're still waiting for first declaration at the EIS in Sheffield.

There are murmurings that higher turnout than expected means the first results are now expected at around 12.30, though nothing confirmed as yet.

All eyes on returning officer, CEO of Sheffield City Council, Kate Josephs.

Lucy Ashton
South Yorkshire political reporter

The Labour leader of Barnsley Council says the party is “really worried” about the election results.

Speaking ahead of the count, Sir Stephen Houghton said: “We had a difficult time on the doorstep over the last six weeks and we've seen the results in other places as well overnight so we’re expecting this is going to be a very challenging day.”

Turnout was 37% across Barnsley, which Houghton said was “up significantly” on previous years.

“We could tell yesterday there were lots and lots of people, many of whom never vote, turning out at the ballot box and experience tells us they're not voting for Labour, they're voting for Reform.

“The Labour Party and the Labour government need a rethink. What's happening now has been building for the last 30 years. We've seen post-industrial places, seaside places, communities, all being left behind over the last 30 years and seeing their communities deteriorate, the opportunities go backwards and they've had enough.

“There needs to be a new economic deal for large parts of the North that have never recovered from what happened when those staple industries disappeared.

“If they do that and they show they're interested in doing that and changing the purpose and nature of those places, then Keir Starmer can get on with it. But if they can't, we might need someone else to do that.

“The root cause is degradation of communities over a long period of time and people have enough of it.”

Lucy Ashton
South Yorkshire political reporter

Sheffield Council has struggled to fund adult social care, transport for pupils with special educational needs and homeless services.

Council tax has also increased by the maximum 4.99% for the past few years.

There is a recruitment freeze at the council, and it had to dip into reserves to pay for a £51m equal pay settlement, but officers say the authority is not at risk of going bankrupt.

The city centre is slowly being regenerated, but for the past few years there have been seemingly endless roadworks around Pinstone Street and Fargate has been constantly dug up.

The council needs to preserve and restore landmark listed buildings, such as the town hall and Central Library, but will need to find the money to do so.

The Local Plan has also become a major election issue. The council is planning to build 3,500 new homes, secondary schools and cemeteries on 14 green belt sites. The majority of the sites are within two postcodes, which has angered residents who say the developments should be shared more equally across the city.

Ahead of the election we spoke to people in Stocksbridge to ask them what they wanted from their councillors.

Lucy Ashton
South Yorkshire political reporter

The priority for all the political parties in the Sheffield City Council election is to hold on to the seats they already have. This election could end up as a card trading game, where parties swap seats but the council remains in no overall control.

Wards to watch are Beighton, which the Lib Dems won in the last elections in 2024 by two votes, and Woodhouse, which the Lib Dems won by 10 votes.

Stocksbridge will also be interesting as it has been held by Labour, Lib Dem, Conservative, UKIP, Reform and Independent in recent years.

And, like the rest of the country, a lot of eyes will be on Reform to see how many seats they pick up.

Sheffield lags behind Manchester and Leeds in terms of its economy and investment, so will a council of so many different parties and independents be able to work together for the good of the city?

Lucy Ashton
South Yorkshire political reporter

Barnsley Council's results are expected later this afternoon.

It has been Labour for 50 years and leader Sir Stephen Houghton (below) has been at the helm for 30 of those.

Image source, Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council

As well as Labour councillors, there are 12 Liberal Democrats, three Independents and one Conservative. Currently there are no Reform UK councillors, but it is a target for them. The Greens are hoping to pick up some seats as well.

For the first time in 20 years, it's all-out elections which means all 63 seats will be up for grabs. The ballot papers will be long – some will have 13 candidates – and voters can choose up to three candidates.

Simon Thake
in Sheffield

Sheffield Council Leader Tom Hunt is currently pacing around the basketball court at the EIS.

That’s where his ward, Walkley, is being counted.

This is the point when all members of the press become body language experts.

Is he pacing because he’s nervous?

A threat from the Greens and Lib Dems? Nervous energy?

Or sizing up his three point shots?

Lucy Ashton
South Yorkshire political reporter

No single party is in control of Sheffield Council and it runs as a committee system. This means Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party share the decision-making.

There are two independent councillors and one Reform councillor, as well as a small group of four Sheffield Community councillors.

The council leader is Labour’s Tom Hunt (pictured below), whose seat of Walkley has become a key battleground in this election.

Image source, Sheffield City Council

This election will be fought on micro issues in each community, and parties will need to adapt their campaigning depending on which postcode they are in.

There are 84 seats on Sheffield Council and this election is “thirds” which means 28 seats are up for grabs. Voters can choose one candidate on the ballot paper.

James Vincent
Political Editor, BBC Yorkshire

It feels like I’ll be on a bit of an election road trip today.

I’m starting in Sheffield where the count is under way at the English Institute for Sport.

Then I’m off up the M1 to Barnsley to the count there at the Metrodome.

Elections and leisure centres tend to go hand in hand – not sure what the people to my right on the treadmills think of all the paper shuffling going on in front of them.

In Sheffield Labour are expected to be squeezed from both the Lib Dems and the Greens, could those parties do enough to team up and run the council?

The sandpit for the long jump at EIS is barriered off insert your own jokes about that – or that the votes are being counted on a basketball court.

Labour will be trying to work out how to bounce back from a bit of a dunking here (you can have those ones for free).

Peter Barnes
Senior elections analyst

Counting is now under way in 46 councils in England, out of 136 local authorities where elections have taken place. As a reminder, counting in Scotland and Wales doesn't begin until Friday.

When those English results come in, the council seat change figures you’ll see on the BBC are calculated by looking back at who won the seats the last time they were contested at a scheduled election, and comparing those results with the winners this time around.

For most of the seats being contested this year, that means going back to the results in 2022. We ignore by-elections and changes of party allegiance – when a councillor defects from one party to another.

That’s the same approach we take when reporting the results of general elections, and many experts think it’s the best way to gauge how the parties have performed from one election to another.

Some media organisations calculate change differently – they look at what party each councillor represented just before this year’s elections. The difference between the two approaches is going to be unusually big this year.

Lots of councillors have switched from one party to another or have left the party they were originally elected for to sit as independents.

In particular, many Conservative councillors have defected to Reform UK and lots of Labour councillors have switched to the Greens or have become independents. Reform have also won a lot of seats in by-elections.

So, the BBC is likely to show a higher number of seat losses for Labour and the Conservatives, and a higher number of gains for Reform UK and the Greens, than you might see elsewhere.

David Rhodes
BBC Yorkshire data journalist

What can we learn from voting in other parts of the country this morning?

Wakefield has only ever been run by Labour since its creation in 1973, but Labour councillors will be fearing the worst - looking at places such as Wigan, a formerly solid Labour town. Overnight the town in Greater Manchester saw Labour lose 22 seats, all to Reform.

Look out for how the Greens perform in Sheffield to see how they might do in Bradford and Leeds.

Nigel Farage says he’s confident of good news for Reform in Calderdale, but along with Kirklees will Reform be the largest party or will they win enough seats to form a majority?

Whilst in Bradford some projections this morning suggest independent candidates could be the second largest group of councillors in the chamber when all the votes are counted.

Image source, PA Media

It's been a tough night for the Labour Party in other parts of the country.

Speaking to reporters, Prime Minister Keir Starmer says that he takes "responsibility" for Labour's election results in England.

"They are very tough, and there's no sugarcoating it," he says.

He says the party has "lost brilliant Labour representatives across the country... that hurts, and it should hurt, and I take responsibility".

“Days like this don’t weaken my resolve to deliver the change that I promised," he adds.

Good morning and welcome to our coverage of the local elections in Yorkshire.

We will be with you through the day and into the evening as votes are counted in councils in your area.

At the moment counting teams are working to verify papers and begin the long job of totting up the ballots.

We'll bring you results, insight and analysis as the day goes on with teams at all counts taking place in the region.

How Sheffield's radical Labour council and the city's business community are working together to revive the city's prospects.With an airport and a science park on the way, Councillor Clive Betts and businessman Norman Adsetts explain why and how the partnership is working.