The results from Brighton and Hove City Council will have massive ramifications.

The Greens becoming the largest party with 23 seats means a new crop of councillors will decide how the city's vital services used by 260,000 residents are run.

In the last four years the Conservative administration had set out its stall promising to keep council tax low while improving services and introducing a value for money programme.

Yet the Greens are naturally inclined to increase taxes to protect frontline local authority services.

Whether or not they will do this with the support of the Labour group, who have 13 councillors, will be decided in the coming days.

Any formal agreement with the Tories, who have 18 seats, is unlikely.

Green convenor Bill Randall said: “The city has listened to the Greens and we have listened to the city.

“We will now sit down and plan how to take the city forward in these difficult times.

“This is the first time the Greens have been the largest party on any council in the UK and people seem to be genuinely enthused by the option of a Green-led council.

“It’s a great result for the city and a huge vote of confidence in the Greens. People went Green across Brighton & Hove. We held all our seats and gained ten more.

“We now have 23 Green councillors, making us the largest Green group of councillors in the country.

“The next step is for us to talk to other parties about how we will work with them and implement our manifesto pledges at a very challenging time for local government budgets.

“We can’t say how this will work until we have entered into discussions.”