COUNTING of seats in Middlesbrough was delayed by computer problems last night.

By 1am, no seats had been declared due to difficulties encountered processing postal ballots.

A spokesman for Middlesbrough Borough Council said: "There was an initial delay with counting the votes because the scanners used to verify the postal ballot papers were unable to do so due to a software problem.

"This resulted in manual checks having to be carried out, delaying the counting.

"The council was unable to begin the counting until the postal votes had been verified, which is normal electoral practise."