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Lots of people in England turned out to vote in several local elections which took place earlier this week.

Local elections give adults the chance to choose who represents them in their towns and councils by taking a seat on the local council.

Local councillors are in charge of lots of issues which directly affect communities, like bin collections, public transport, local education and environmental issues.

There are different types of local elections in the UK and it's because local councils are organised differently depending on where people live.

Some places in the UK have just one group of councillors who run all sorts of local services. In other areas, responsibilities are split between two or more 'layers' of councillors.

Residents living in London also voted for who they'd like to make up the London Assembly on Thursday and which candidate should become the next London Mayor.

There were elections to choose other 12 mayors in different regions and cities across England and police and crime commissioners in both England and Wales.

Current London Mayor Sadiq Khan has won a second term, beating his Conservative rival Shaun Bailey.

The former MP, who became the first Muslim mayor of an EU capital city back in 2016, gained 55.2% of the votes. He failed to reach his record-setting vote total of 2016, but won the latest election with a 228,000-vote majority.

Speaking after the results were announced, Mr Khan said: "I will always be a mayor for all Londoners, working to improve the lives of every single person in this city."

The final results of the London Assembly election have also been announced, with the Labour Party securing the majority of the 25 seats and the Conservative Party coming in at a close second.

Labour councillor Joanne Anderson has been elected as the mayor of Liverpool and she's made history by becoming the first black woman to lead a major British city.

She said she was "proud and honoured" to be the first black woman directly-elected as a mayor of a UK city and the city's first ever female leader.

"Liverpool has always been a city of firsts - one that does things differently and that charters its own path. Today we made history," she said.

The newly elected Mayor also said "today is the beginning of the fresh start we all want and need" for Liverpool.

Labour's Andy Burnham has been re-elected as the mayor of Greater Manchester in a landslide victory.

He was backed by 67.3% of voters and will continue as mayor for another term.

Following his win, Mr Burnham thanked those who voted for him and promised to continue to be a voice for "all people and communities" and to adopt a "place first" not party approach.

He also said his three priorities were "better jobs, better homes and better transport" and called on the government to "level up" in the north of England.

On Friday, a new MP was chosen after a by-election in Hartlepool. A by-election is when an MP needs to be elected to the houses of parliament between general elections and this has happened in Hartlepool after the Labour MP there quit.

The conservative candidate Jill Mortimer won the vote to become the area's first non-Labour local MP since 1974. Conservative supporters see this as a sign of things to come in future elections.

As of Sunday morning, 132 out of 143 councils in England where elections were held have declared their local election results, and 21 out of 35 police force areas in England have declared the outcome of their elections for police and crime commissioners.