A long-standing parish council chairman faces an uncertain wait to see if she will retain her council role after missing the deadline for submitting her nomination papers.

Councillor Christine Curtis, who has served on Doddington Parish Council for more than 20 years, a sizable chunk of that time as chairman, mistakenly thought the deadline for completing nomination papers was tomorrow.

To her horror, when she went to fill in the forms last Friday, she realised the deadline was in fact last Thursday.

Now, she is dependent on fellow councillors co-opting her to remain within the parish council.

Cllr Curtis said: “I had a lot going on - with hospital appointments and so on - and I thought I still had a week to submit the forms.

“But, when I got the papers out on Friday morning, I saw the deadline was Thursday at 4pm.

“It felt awful. I was very cross with myself. It should not have happened, but it has. I just hope my mistake can be remedied and, with two vacancies on the council, I’ll be co-opted by the rest of the council.

“I’ve been involved with the council for more than 20 years - it’s a massive part of my life - and I’ve still got unfinished business.”