Labour made the biggest gains at Cheshire East and the Conservatives bucked the national trend by picking up seats too, but no single party won enough to take control of the council.

Labour made six gains overall and the Tories three – mostly at the expense of the Independents who had a night to forget, losing seven seats. The Liberal Democrats dropped two of the four they had previously held.

The Conservatives are still the biggest party on the new-look council with 33 councillors, Labour are now just behind them on 31, the Independents – which include local groups such as Alderley Edge and the Residents of Wilmslow – have 16 and the Lib Dems, two.

Council leader Sam Corcoran (Lab) told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "I'm delighted that Labour has gained seats and congratulate all the successful candidates."

He added: "Elections are brutal affairs though and I do sympathise with all the unsuccessful candidates, particularly those who have given good service to Cheshire East and now lost their seats. So the work will now start to form a new administration and I look forward to delivering the open, fair and green agenda that we've worked on for the last four years."

When asked whether the council would continue to be run by a joint Labour/Independent administration as it has been for the past four years, Cllr Corcoran said: "I will certainly be working with the Independents to see if they are willing to form a joint administration."

There was a major shock in Crewe when the Tories took the St Barnabas ward from Labour. James Pratt now has the seat previously held by Sally Handley.

And there was a major upset in Middlewich when two of the three Labour seats went to the Independents. Labour's Carol Bulman managed to hold on to hers, but Mike Hunter and Jonathan Parry lost theirs to Independents Garnet Marshall and John Bird.

The Tories and Independents were served up a shock in Nantwich.

Long-serving Conservative Nantwich South & Stapeley councillors Peter Groves and Andrew Martin lost their seats to Labour's John Priest and Geoffrey Smith.

And Labour also picked up a seat from the Independents in Nantwich North & West, meaning three of the four Nantwich councillors on Cheshire East are now Labour.

In Wistaston, the Conservatives lost one seat to Labour.

Long-serving Conservative councillor Don Stockton lost the Wilmslow Lacey seat he has held for years to Chris Hilliard, of Residents of Wilmslow. All five Wilmslow councillors are now Independent (Residents of Wilmslow).

The Conservatives won all three Knutsford seats – picking up one from the Independents.

And Labour's Kathryn Flavell lost the Sandbach Elworth seat to Independent Nicola Cook.

Conservative group leader Janet Clowes had to leave the count at Crewe Lifestyle Centre on Friday evening before the final result was known, but she told the LDRS the Tories had done better than she had thought they would.

"I have to say I think that Cheshire East has in many ways bucked the national trend," said Cllr Clowes. "We have not seen the Labour party take over the council, which I know is what they had hoped for.

"We have seen an interesting rearrangement of Labour and Independent seats, particularly in places like Middlewich, which has meant no overall change in real terms at this stage for the Conservative party and in fact we have achieved an extraordinary gain in Crewe, alongside some of the unfortunate losses we've had in Nantwich.

"So while those are regrettable, on balance we've actually regained seats that we lost in 2019, for example up in Disley, so it will be interesting at the end of this process to sit down and evaluate what we've got, but far better than I had thought possible when I left the count (verification) last night."

The Independents lost two seats in Bollington, one in Bunbury, one in Poynton East, one in Shavington, one in Disley and one in Knutsford.

Current mayor David Marren lost his Shavington seat to Labour and Amanda Stott and James Nicholas lost their seats in Bollington to Labour.

Bunbury, Poynton East, Disley and Knutsford all went back to the Tories from Independent. In each of these seats, the existing councillor had chosen not to seek re-election.