Labour has retained control of Carlisle City Council in the 2016 local elections.

The party lost one seat in Botcherby, which was snapped up by independent Jeff Bomford with a majority of just 12 votes.

A total of 24,040 people - 35.54 per cent of the electorate - cast a vote by post or ballot box ahead of the count at the Sands Centre.

Polling stations closed at 10pm with the first ballot boxes arriving just minutes later but it took almost four hours before counting of the all important votes began.

Votes that had been cast in the separate Cumbria Police and Crime Commissioner election had to be verified and conveyed to a central base in South Lakeland before counting in the city council poll could get under way.

Seventeen seats - a third of the 52 seats on the city council - were up for grabs.

Ten were held by Labour, five by the Conservatives, and one each by Liberal Democrat Trevor Allison for Dalston and Hayton independent member Willie Graham.

The 17 seats up for election were in Belah, Belle Vue, Botcherby, Brampton, Castle, Currock, Dalston, Denton Holme, Great Corby & Geltsdale, Harraby, Hayton, Morton, St Aidans, Stanwix Urban, Upperby, Wetheral and Yewdale.

Before the election the city council was Labour controlled, the party holding 28 of the 52 seats, ahead of the Conservatives that had 20 members.

The remaining seats were held by a Liberal Democrat and three independent councillors.

Returning officer Jason Gooding announced the final results at 3.15am after recounts of votes in the Botcherby and Yewdale wards.

Labour now has 27 seats on the full council, 20 are filled by Conservatives, four are Independents and the Liberal Democrat Trevor Allison has retained Dalston.

BELAH - CONSERVATIVE HOLD

  • Paul Birks - Labour - 630 
  • Robert Hugh Charlesworth - Trade Unionists and Socialists Against Cuts - 9 
  • Phil Douglass - Ukip - 189 
  • Penelope Bothepa Foster - Green Party - 72
  • David Morton - Conservative - 965 

Turnout - 1868 votes out of 4709 electorate - 39.67%

BELLE VUE - LABOUR HOLD 

  • Robert Gordon Currie - Conservative - 660 
  • Les Tickner - Labour - 963 
  • Turnout - 1636 votes out of 4741 electorate - 34.51%

BOTCHERBY - INDEPENDENT GAIN 

  • Jeff Bomford - Independent - 511 
  • Lawrence Fisher - Conservative - 157 
  • Anne Glendinning - Labour - 499 
  • Henry Goodwin - Green Party - 27 

Turnout - 1199 votes out of 4214 electorate - 28.45 % 

Guaranteed new councillor as retiring councillor (Labour Michael Boaden) standing down

BRAMPTON - CONSERVATIVE HOLD 

  • David Edward Brooks - Labour - 363 
  • John James Harding - Ukip - 200 
  • Stephen Layden - Conservative - 588 
  • Olwyn Luckley - Liberal Democrat - 64
  • Richard Kevin O'Brien - Green Party - 71 

Turnout - 1291 votes cast out of 3463 electorate - 37.28%

CASTLE - LABOUR HOLD 

  • Melissa Andrews - Conservative - 258 
  • Manwara Begum - Liberal Democrat - 89
  • Joanna Coleman - Labour - 544 
  • Robert Reed-Sinclair - Ukip - 150 
  • Alan Benjamin Simpson - Green Party - 50

Turnout - 1094 votes out of 3738 electorate - 29.27% 

Guaranteed new councillor as retiring councillor (Elsie Martlew, Labour) standing down

CURROCK - LABOUR HOLD 

  • Helen Elizabeth Atkinson - Green Party - 36 
  • John Gordon Denholm - Ukip - 203 
  • Colin Glover - Labour - 680 
  • Brent Kennedy - Trade Unionists and Socialists Against Cuts - 16
  • Neville Lishman - Conservative - 190 
  • Marjorie Jannette Richardson - Liberal Democrat - 35 

Turnout - 1167 votes out of 4213 electorate - 27.70%

DALSTON - LIBERAL DEMOCRAT HOLD 

  • Trevor Allison - Liberal Democrat - 1195 
  • Robert Geoffrey Mitchell - Conservative - 623
  • Raymond Warwick - Labour - 315 

Turnout - 2141 votes out of 4976 electorate - 43.03%

DENTON HOLME - LABOUR HOLD 

  • Ruth Elizabeth Alcroft - Labour - 712
  • Neil Boothman - Green Party - 112 
  • Barbara Eden - Conservative - 273 
  • John Grahame Higginson - Trade Unionists and Socialists Against Cuts - 56 
  • John Warmingham - Ukip - 168

Turnout - 1330 votes out of 4402 electorate - 30.21% 

Guaranteed new councillor as retiring councillor (Joan Southward, Labour) standing down

GREAT CORBY AND GELTSDALE - CONSERVATIVE HOLD 

  • Michael Anthony Gee - Liberal Democrat - 98
  • Sky Fiona Higgins - Green Party - 62 
  • Alan McGuckin - Labour - 178 
  • Doreen Parsons - Conservative - 350 

Turnout 695 votes out of 1708 - 40.69%

HARRABY - LABOUR HOLD 

  • Philip Chappelhow - Ukip - 227
  • Daniel David Little - Trade Unionists and Socialists Against Cuts - 40 
  • Michael Randall - Conservative - 447 
  • Lee Sherriff - Labour - 852 

Turnout - 1575 votes out of 4798 electorate - 32.83%

HAYTON - INDEPENDENT HOLD  

  • Richard Sebastian Hunt - Green Party - 51
  • Keith Meller - Conservative - 176 
  • Ray Tinnion - Independent - 525 

Turnout - 753 votes out of 1587 - 47.45%

Guaranteed new councillor as retiring councillor (William Graham, Independent) standing down

MORTON - LABOUR HOLD 

  • David James Barton - Trade Unionists and Socialists Against Cuts - 26
  • Fiona Mills - Ukip - 273 
  • Robin William James Morrison - Green Party - 39 
  • Peter Noble - Liberal Democrat - 130 
  • Therese Eleanor Sidgwick - Labour - 705 
  • Charlotte Ann Smallwood - Conservative - 281 

Turnout - 1463 votes out of 4455 - 32.84% 

Guaranteed new councillor as retiring councillor (Elaine Stevenson, Labour) standing down

ST AIDANS - LABOUR HOLD 

  • Geoffrey Laurence Osborne - Conservative - 278 
  • David Steven Parker - Ukip - 200 
  • Lucy Patrick - Labour - 550 
  • John Reardon - Green Party - 107 

Turnout - 1136 votes out of 4069 electorate - 27.29%

STANWIX URBAN - CONSERVATIVE HOLD 

  • Helen Davison - Green Party - 187
  • Brendan Murphy - Liberal Democrat - 116
  • Paul Nedved - Conservative - 969 
  • Stephen Sidgwick - Labour - 637 

Turnout - 1930 votes out of 4438 - 43.49%

UPPERBY - LABOUR HOLD  

  • Shaidat Denmole-Ellis - Conservative - 147 
  • Christine Holliday - Ukip - 191 
  • Niall McNulty - Labour - 662 
  • James Ernest Osler - Liberal Democrat - 101 
  • Daniel Thorburn - Trade Unionsts and Socialists Against Cuts - 35 

Turnout - 1142 votes out of 3723 electorate - 30.67% 

Guaranteed new councillor as retiring councillor (Donald Cape, Labour) standing down

WETHERAL - CONSERVATIVE HOLD 

  • Annia Banks - Labour - 281 
  • Barry Earp - Conservative - 1061
  • Hazel Graham - Green Party - 65 
  • Geoffrey Round - Ukip - 200 
  • David Wood - Liberal Democrat - 64

Turnout - 1675 votes out of 3839 electorate - 43.63%

YEWDALE - LABOUR HOLD 

David John Bradley - Green Party - 87 

Malcolm Fraser Craik - Ukip - 296 

Christina Finlayson - Conservative - 757 

Maureen Frances McDonald - Labour - 803 

Turnout - 1951 votes out of 4569 electorate - 42.70% 

Guaranteed new councillor as retiring councillor (Karen Atkinson, Labour) standing down