Angela Harrison has now lodged papers with the High Court after a re-count for the Crowland and Deeping St Nicholas ward showed she would have been elected if almost 1,500 votes had not been missed from the original May 3 count.

Mrs Harrison (Con) was originally declared in fourth place, losing out to Jim Astill (Con) by one vote – 338-337.

The recount showed Mrs Harrison reversed the decision and had won by seven votes.

Mr Astill subsequently resigned as a councillor but Mrs Harrison has paid more than £2,000 in fees to overturn the decision, although she hopes to be able to claim the money back.

A petition was lodged before the three-week deadline of Thursday, May 24, and later this week papers will be returned to her solicitors Andrew and Co, of Lincoln, which may give an indication as to when a hearing will take place.

This could be as far as three months away.

Returning officer Terry Huggins is supplying evidence of the re-count to back up Mrs Harrison's petition, and she said: "I hope it can go through quickly as I would think that no-one will contest it.

"My main concern is that while the process takes place I will be missing inductions and meetings, which I can only attend as a member of the public, and courses that I have to go on. It's going to be a steep learning curve."

In last week's Lincolnshire Free Press we said Mr Huggins would not give a reason why the votes had been missed from the original count.

We should have said he was unable to say why the votes had been missed as it is unclear how it happened. We apologise for the error.