Frodsham Town Council's Policy, Process and Revenue Committee has settled on Main Street Community Church as a venue for post-Covid Council meetings.

Regulations allowing councils to hold virtual meetings during the coronavirus pandemic expire on Thursday 6 May, requiring all official local authority meetings taking place after this date to be in person.

Frodsham Town Council can no longer meet in Castle Park House due to the development of Ancora House School community hub, and so as Covid restrictions draw to a close, Councillors have been considering the feasibility of holding meetings in other community buildings.

Having considered Frodsham Methodist Church as a possible venue, Councillors and officers recently visited Main Street Community Church, finding that it would have room for 28 people to sit in a socially-distanced manner.

At a Policy, Process and Revenue Committee meeting on Monday (26 April), Cllr Judith Critchley said: "It's a good size room and in a good location; it's fairly central for everybody. The only concern we have is if a large number of members of the public wanted to attend the meetings, because that would make social distancing difficult.

"[However], once that restriction goes in June, this will be less of an issue."

The Town Clerk, Jo O'Donoghue, then added that while restrictions on social contact are still in place, "I do believe we would still need to offer an opportunity for members of the public to attend via Zoom.

Cllr Ryan McKeown elaborated: "I think what we're talking about here is setting up a computer with a WiFi connection so that the public can see what is going on in the church.

"We would have Zoom running in the background so that [members of the public] could address the Council through a smaller screen visible to the Councillors.

"There isn't a great deal of technology involved; it would probably just be a question of a few microphones placed strategically around the room. The audio is probably more of a problem than the visual because we need microphones that won't pick up every little noise."

It was also suggested that any equipment purchased for these Council meetings could also be used by local community groups for their different activities and events.

The Committee then approved the proposal to host Town Council meetings in the church, although working group meetings will be able to continue in virtual form.

Town Council staff will now examine the best way to approach technological arrangements for hybrid meetings.